ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > Ugo Basile instruments supported by ANY-maze > The Ugo Basile Operon > Running experiments using the Ugo Basile Operon

Running experiments using the Ugo Basile Operon

Introduction

Having set up an ANY-maze protocol for the Operon, you are ready to use the protocol in an experiment. This topic will describe how to create an experiment from the protocol, run a test, and then view the results.

•

Create the experiment and load the Operon protocol

•

Add some treatments and animals

•

Perform a test

•

View the test results

•

Operon measures

Create the experiment and load the Operon protocol

Whether you are using the 'Operon Stuck In Set protocol' provided with the Ugo Basile Operon, or you have created your own protocol (see Setting up an ANY-maze protocol for the Operon), then you are ready to create and run an experiment based on this protocol.

For the purposes of this topic, I have assumed that you are running an experiment using the 'Operon Stuck In Set protocol' provided with the Ugo Basile Operon, and are familiar with the methodology used in the original set-shifting experiment.

To create an experiment, you will need to do the following:

Switch to the File page.

If you already have an experiment open, then select New experiment in the list on the left-hand side of the page.

The right-hand side of the page will show various 'documents', one of which will represent the Operon protocol; select it. If the protocol doesn't appear in the list, then you can select Browse on the left-hand side of the page to search the computer for the relevant protocol file. (After you've done this once, it will then appear in the documents on the right-hand side of the page as a 'recently-used' protocol.)

Add some treatments and animals

With the Operon protocol loaded, you can add the treatment groups and animals for your experiment.

If necessary, switch to the Experiment page.

If you're using the provided 'Operon Stuck In Set protocol', you will find that there are some Operon-specific controls on the left-hand side of the page. These define how you will conduct your experiment, and must be entered before you can add any animals or treatments. For more information on this, see the Randomising relevant and irrelevant dimensions for the Ugo Basile Operon topic.

If you're using your own protocol, then whether these fields are present will depend on whether you opted to allow ANY-maze to randomise your animals when you set up your protocol and added an Operon device.

In the spreadsheet on the right-hand side of the page, enter each treatment on a separate line, together with the number of animals in that treatment. For example, you could enter a treatment of 'Drug' with an 'N' of 2, and a treatment of 'Saline', also with an 'N' of 2.

Perform a test

You're now ready to perform a test. Switch to the Tests page. You will see the Test schedule on the left-hand side of the page, outlining all the tests that need to be performed in the different stages of the experiment, and which animals they are to be performed on. If you selected the 'Ugo Basile Operon mode with video tracking' protocol mode when you set up your protocol, then the right-hand side of the page will show an image of the Operon apparatus from above; otherwise it will simply show the word 'Ready'.

The test schedule lists the various stages of the test, from Habituation through Simple Discrimination (SD), Complex Discrimination (CD), Inter-Dimensional Shift (IDS) and ending with the Extra-Dimensional Shift (EDS). A brief summary of the stages is as follows:

Habituation 1

This simply dispenses a pellet on every nose poke.

Habituation 2

Each nose poke dispenses a pellet, and the door is opened when the pellet is taken. The animal must enter the opposite chamber in order to perform another nose poke and receive a pellet

Habituation 3

Introduces a pair of choices for a single dimension (light, touch or odour) and the animal must make the correct choice for each nose-poke. A correct nose-poke will dispense a pellet and open the door, as the next set of stimuli are provided in the opposite chamber.

This stage consists of two parts - SD1 uses a choice of stimuli from the animal's irrelevant dimension, and SD2 uses a choice of stimuli from the animal's relevant dimension.

From this stage onwards, the animal must make 8 correct nose pokes out of 10 in order to move on to the next stage.

SD	The Simple Discrimination stage uses a choice of stimuli from the animal's relevant dimension.

CD	The Complex Discrimination stage adds stimuli from the 'irrelevant' stimulus in addition to the correct stimuli from the relevant dimension.

CDRe	Reverses the correct and incorrect relevant stimulus; the animal must now learn that the previously-incorrect stimulus is now the correct one.

IDS	The Inter-Dimensional Shift stage introduces a new pair of stimuli from the relevant dimension (alongside a new pair from the irrelevant dimension).

IDSRe

Reverses the relevant stimuli from the IDS stage, so that the previously-incorrect stimulus is now correct.

IDS2	The second Inter-Dimensional Shift stage introduces a new pair of stimuli from the relevant dimension (alongside a new pair from the irrelevant dimension).

IDS2Re

Reverses the relevant stimuli from the IDS2 stage, so that the previously-incorrect stimulus is now correct.

EDS	The Extra-Dimensional Shift makes a new dimension relevant. For a 3D experiment, a previously-unused dimension is introduced; for a 2D experiment, the previously-irrelevant dimension becomes the new relevant dimension.

EDSRe

Reverses the relevant stimuli from the EDS stage, so that the previously-incorrect stimulus is now correct.

The animals always start the test in chamber 1.

View the test results

Having completed a test, we can look at the test results.

The Test schedule report will currently be shown on the left of the Tests page. The report will show a number of tests, one of which has been completed - this is the test you just performed.

Click the test number 1 (it's a link). The Test details report will open. The Test details report includes a Results section which will show the results of the test. These will include some basic test results, and some Operon-specific measures that are written by the procedures that run (See Operon measures, below).

Operon measures

Trials to Criterion:

Measures the total number of nose pokes in the test.

This value is only recorded for a successful trial (8 out of 10 responses are correct); otherwise, the value will be reported as #N/A.

Time to Criterion (s):

Measures the test duration (in seconds) at the point where Success is determined.

This value is only recorded for a successful trial (8 out of 10 responses are correct); otherwise, the value will be reported as #N/A.

Latency to Response (s):

Measures the time (in seconds) between the animal making a correct nose-poke, and then performing a nose-poke in the pellet dispenser. If the animal does not make a nose poke within 120s, the Latency to Response is measured as 120s (as well as an Omission being recorded).

This measure is recorded multiple times within a single test, and so it is actually available as Average, Maximum and Minimum (as well as a Sum and Count of the values noted) rather than a single value for a test.

Latency to Reward (s):

Measures the time (in seconds) between the nose-poke response and the magazine photobeam break. If the animal does not take the pellet within 120s, this is measured as an Omission and in this case, the Latency to Reward is not noted.

Correct Responses:

Measures the number of correct nose-poke responses within the test.

Incorrect Responses:

Measures the number of incorrect nose-poke responses within the test.

No. Omissions:

Measures the number of Omissions during a test.

An Omission is measured as:

•

120s elapses after the animal enters the chamber (breaking the door beam on the way in) and before it performs a nose poke; or

•

120s elapses between the animal performing a correct nose poke, and before it performs a nose poke in the pellet dispenser (i.e. takes the pellet).

Not all of these measures are relevant for all stages of the Operon protocol - for example, the Habituation stages do not make any measurements.

Summary

That completes the ANY-maze Operon documentation. Of course, ANY-maze provides lots of other features not described here, but these are documented in the general help topics as they're not specific to the Ugo Basile Operon.

ANY-maze help topic T1272