T-Maze

The water escape T-maze is a behavioral assay that can be used in studies of learning, memory, and cognition in Fish. The aquatic test apparatus is designed to form one long arm joined with a T-joint to two shorter side arms (or reservoirs). Being a choice task, the T-Maze incorporates a single choice point with only two alternatives. Examples of these could be a choice of escape arm as opposed to a blocked arm or having one of the reservoir arms providing a more favourable (e.g., food reward, habitat) option than the opposite arm. For this test, the fish are placed in a start area within the maze and allowed to swim to the centre in search of the correct escape or the favourable route. With sufficient training the fish will learn to swim in the direction of the correct arm route. The water T-maze can also be applied during spatial navigation assays during which the fish can learn to selectively associate external cues and colour with the correct arm choice. These tests have been particularly useful during investigations into the effects of drugs on cognitive function. Various parameters are recorded during the water T-maze assay and these include latency to find the correct arm, the total number of individual arm entries as well as the sequence of entries.

Analysing water T-maze experiments using Actual products is easy, and ActualTrack: Fish Edition is designed specifically for analysing fish behavior. Fish in the water T-maze set-up are monitored with a video camera mounted above the experimental arena which is connected to a computer to record a video file. ActualTrack: Fish Edition software analyses the video file and utilises three-point fish tracking (head, centre of mass, and end of tail) to identify the fish within the arena and determine its position. Using ActualTrack: Fish Edition you can define regions for the short arms and accurately and automatically monitor entry of the animal in to each arm based on the location of its head, centre of mass, and end of tail (or any combination thereof). With ActualTrack: Fish Edition, locomotor activity within an water T-maze is easily assessed and quantified in the short arms, or any other region within the arena as defined by the user.

What you need to perform water T-maze experiments using ActualTrack: Fish 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: Fish 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 below, or infrared (IR) lighting for recording during the dark.

- Fish and Water T-maze.

- A computer with a web browser and web access (see requirements for details).

- ActualTrack: Fish 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 Fish T-maze Maze experiment using ActualTrack: Fish Edition:

- Locomotor results: Distance travelled (cm), Average Speed (cm / s), Locomotor results for each arm defined for the fish T-maze

- Zone results based on fish location within the T-maze: Time spent in each arm [s], Time spent in each arm [%], Latency to each first arm entry [s], Number of visits to each arm [n], Number of visits to each arm [%], 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: Fish Edition could help you achieve the results you need.