Radial Arm Maze
The Radial Arm Maze is primarily used to measure spatial learning and non-spatial memory associated with motivational reward (typically food). This paradigm addresses hippocampal function and is designed to mimic natural foraging behaviors.
The Radial Arm Maze has a central platform with varying number of arms (8, 12 or 16) radiating out with food placed at their ends to ensure it is not visible from the centre. In a typical trial, the rat is placed in the centre of the maze and allowed to explore each arm individually to collect the food. As rats prefer to explore a new arm of the maze rather than returning to one that was previously visited, their task is to find the locations of food rewards at the end of some of the arms and to remember these locations for successive tests.
The design of the Radial Arm Maze ensures that the rat is always forced to return to the central platform after checking for food and before making another choice. Non-spatial memory capability can also be assessed by using random baiting of arms and closing off selected arms using the sliding doors located at the entry to each arm. The data is analyzed to determine the number of arm entries without repetition and the number of correct choices the subject makes in collecting the food.
Analysing Radial Arm Maze experiments using Actual products is easy, and ActualTrack: Rodent Edition is designed specifically for analysing rodent behavior. An animal in the Radial Arm Maze set-up is monitored with a video camera mounted above the experimental arena which is connected to a computer to record a video file. ActualTrack: Rodent Edition software analyses the video file and utilises three-point animal tracking (head, centre of mass, and tail base) to identify the animal within the Radial Arm Maze and determine its position. Using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition you can define regions (such as food location) for each of the arms, and accurately and automatically monitor entry of the animal in to any defined region (or relative position to food) within the Radial Arm Maze based on the location of its head, centre of mass, and tail base (or any combination thereof). With ActualTrack: Rodent Edition, the locomotor activity within the Radial Arm Maze is also easily assessed and quantified in any user-defined region within the arena.
What you need to perform Radial Arm Maze experiments using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:
- Digital Camera: from standard digital video camera to professional digital High Definition cameras (to enhance resolution of very small animals or large arenas) ActualTrack: Rodent Edition can work with almost any common video format. See our recommended camera list for the most appropriate camera for your set-up.
- ActualCapture Software (optional) - enables easy direct recording of your experiment to a digital video file. This is recommended when you do not already have a camera and recording software. If you would like us to arrange and supply recording set-up, please contact us.
- Lighting: diffuse lighting from directly above, or infrared (IR) lighting for recording during the dark.
- Radial Arm Maze Arena
- A computer with a web browser and web access (see requirements for details).
- ActualTrack: Rodent Edition software
Our tracking, scoring and video capture software can be easily optimised to a broad range of hardware and experimental set-ups to ensure the best possible conditions for your video analysis. If required, please contact us for recommendations and a list of preferred suppliers of hardware.
What you can analyse in a Radial Arm Maze with ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:
- Locomotor results: Distance moved (cm), Average Speed (cm / s), Locomotor results for each zone
- Zone results based on animal location: Time spent in each arm and centre [s], Time spent in each arm and centre [%], Latency to each first arm entry [s], Number of visits to each arm / centre [n], Number of visits to each arm / centre [%], First arm visited, Order of arm visits
- Visualisations: Birds nest plot, heat map
- ActualScore functionality allows for integrated manual coding user defined behaviors
- All results are calculated automatically and provided in an easy to use CSV format which can be imported in to most statistical analysis packages for further investigation and graphical representation
- and much more...
For more information, see the product information, or get in touch to find out more about how ActualTrack: Rodent Edition could help you achieve the results you need.
