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ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Apparatus > Apparatus > Apparatus measures
Apparatus measures
 | ANY-maze has been designed to be extended, and we'll be delighted to add any new measures you might find useful, for free! Just contact ANY-maze Support. |
ANY-maze will score the following measures for the apparatus as a whole:
Speed measures
Freezing measures
Mobility measures
Activity measures
Turning and rotation measures
Position in the apparatus
Rearing measures
Barnes maze Strategy analysis measures
Barnes maze Strategy analysis measures - UNMC method
Miscellaneous measures
RAPC measures
Test duration
| Description | Reports the duration of a test. |
| Calculation method | The value of the test clock when the test ended. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell inside the period. This will be the full duration of the period for all periods except the last one in the test. This result is most useful in calculations. |
Time not hidden
| Description | Reports the amount of time in the test for which the animal was not hidden. |
| Calculation method | Each time the animal becomes hidden the amount of time it has been visible for is added to a running total of the time not hidden. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the amount of time during the period for which the animal was not hidden. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the protocol includes at least one hidden zone. |
Total distance travelled
| Description | Reports the total distance that the animal travelled during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sum of the distance between each point in the track - see note below. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the distance that the animal travelled during the period. |
| Notes | In some situations, tracks can have small oscillations in them which tend to generate unrepresentatively large values for distance travelled. This occurs most often when an animal travels slowly while moving its body a lot - for example, while exploring an open field. To overcome this, ANY-maze uses an adaptive smoothing algorithm to attenuate these oscillations when calculating distance travelled - see figure 1. Note: The definition of what's a small oscillation is based on the animal's size. |
Figure 1. Measuring the length of the actual track (shown in orange) would yield an unrepresentatively large value for distance travelled. ANY-maze uses a 'smoothed' track (shown in green) to better estimate the true distance travelled. [Note: The oscillations in this track have been exaggerated to aid explanation.]
This measure only includes the distance the animal travelled while ANY-maze could see it. In other words, if the animal was hidden for part of the test then the distance it may have travelled while hidden is not included in this value.
Total distance travelled by the animal's head
| Description | Reports the total distance that the animal's head travelled during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sum of the distance between each point in the head track. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | As for the Total distance travelled, ANY-maze will smooth the animal's head track to remove small oscillations which would otherwise distort the result of this measure. |
First zone entered
| Description | Reports the name of the first zone that the animal entered during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
In some circumstances, it's possible that two or more zones could be the 'first zone entered'. For example, if you create a protocol in which a single area of the apparatus is included in two zones then, if the animal enters this area first, it will have entered both zones at the same time - meaning there are two 'first zones entered'. In this situation, ANY-maze will report the 'first zone entered' as being the first one of the zones in the zone list shown in the protocol.
This measure is only available if no zones are excluded from analysis.
Visited zone list
| Description | Reports a comma-separated list of the names of the zones the animal visited, in the order in which they were visited. |
| Calculation method | Each time the animal enters a zone, the zone's name is added to the list. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
| Notes | It is possible to define an area of the apparatus as being part of two (or more) zones. If the animal enters such an area, then it is necessarily entering all the zones simultaneously and the list will therefore include them all. In this case, the zones are added to the list in the order in which they appear in the protocol. |
This measure is only available if no zones are excluded from analysis.
Investigated zone list
| Description | Reports a comma-separated list of the names of the zones the animal investigated, in the order in which they were investigated. |
| Calculation method | Each time the animal investigates a zone, the zone's name is added to the list. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
| Notes | It is possible for an animal to start investigating two (or more) zones at exactly the same time. If this occurs then the zones are added to the list in the order in which they appear in the protocol. |
This measure is only available if no zones are excluded from analysis.
Average speed
| Description | Reports the average speed of the animal during a test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the Total distance travelled during the period divided by the Test duration for the period. Note: The 'Test duration' for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
| Notes | If you want to know average speed while mobile (i.e. ignoring periods when the animal was stationary), then use a calculation of Total distance travelled / Total time mobile. |
Average speed when not hidden
| Description | Reports the average speed of the animal for the periods of the test for which it was not hidden. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the Total distance travelled during the period divided by the Time not hidden for the period. Note: If the Time not hidden for a period is zero (i.e. the animal was hidden for the entire period) then the result for this measure will be undefined. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the protocol includes at least one hidden zone. |
Maximum speed
| Description | Reports the maximum speed of the animal. |
| Calculation method | The speed of the animal between positions is calculated and the maximum speed is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | The calculation of maximum speed does not use successive positions but instead requires that the animal move at least a minimum distance (which is based on the animal's size) and the speed to cover this distance is calculated. This method of calculation is used to avoid reporting the speed of movements that don't constitute locomotion of the animal. For example, if an animal scratches, its centre point may oscillate rapidly but this will not be reported as the animal's maximum speed. |
Total freezing episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal froze during the test. |
| Calculation method | Each time the animal begins to freeze, a counter is incremented. The result is the counter's value at the end of the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a time period is the number of freezing episodes that started during the period. |
Total time freezing
| Description | Reports the total amount of time during the test that the animal was freezing. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each freezing episode is calculated and these values are summed. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a time period is the amount of time the animal was freezing during the period. If the animal is freezing at the start of the period, then the result includes the time until the animal stops freezing (or the period ends). This means that the total freezing episodes during a time period can be zero when the time freezing during the period is non-zero. |
Latency to start of first freezing episode
| Description | Reports the latency to the start of the first moment in the test when the animal freezes. If the animal is freezing at the start of the test, this value will be zero. |
| Calculation method | The test time when the first freezing episode occurs. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a time period is the time when the animal first froze during the time period. This means that if the animal is freezing at the start of the time period, then the latency is not reported as zero. |
Average freezing score
| Description | Reports the average of the animal's freezing score. |
| Calculation method | The freezing scores are summed and divided by their count. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is most useful when applied to time segments, as comparison of the score between segments gives an indication of the changes in the animal's activity across time. |
Total time mobile
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was mobile during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the Test duration of the period minus Total time immobile during the period. Note: The 'Test duration' for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
Total time immobile
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was immobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each immobile episode in the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the sum of the duration of each immobile episode in the period. |
Episodes of immobility which fall partly in a period but which start or end outside it are calculated as if they started or ended at the start or end of the period, respectively. This means that it is possible to have a result for Total immobile episodes in the period which is zero and a result for Total time immobile in the period which is not zero. For example, if the animal is immobile at the start of a period and remains immobile throughout the period then the Total time immobile in the period will be the period's duration but the Total immobile episodes in the period will be zero because no transition from a mobile state to an immobile state occurred during the period.
Total mobile episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was mobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an immobile state to a mobile state during the test. For the purposes of this calculation, the animal is assumed to be immobile at the start of the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the count of the number of transitions from an immobile state to a mobile state during the period. |
Total immobile episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was immobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from a mobile state to an immobile state during the test. For the purposes of this calculation, the animal is assumed to be mobile at the start of the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the count of the number of transitions from a mobile state to an immobile state during the period. |
Latency to start of first mobile episode
| Description | Reports the latency to the start of the first moment in the test when the animal is considered to be mobile. If the animal is mobile at the start of the test, this measure's value will be zero. |
| Calculation method | The test time when the animal first becomes mobile. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
Latency to start of first immobility episode
| Description | Reports the latency to the start of the first moment in the test when the animal is considered to be immobile. If the animal is immobile at the start of the test, this measure's value will be zero. |
| Calculation method | The test time when the animal first becomes immobile. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
Latency to start of last mobile episode
| Description | Reports the latency to the start of the last episode of mobility in the test. If the animal is only mobile once in the test this value will be the same as the Latency to start of first mobile episode. If the animal is mobile throughout the test then this value will be zero. If the animal is never mobile during the test then this value will be #N/A. |
| Calculation method | The test time when the animal becomes mobile for the last time in the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
Latency to start of last immobile episode
| Description | Reports the latency to the start of the last episode of immobility in the test. If the animal is only immobile once in the test this value will be the same as the Latency to start of first immobile episode. If the animal is immobile throughout the test then this value will be zero. If the animal is never immobile during the test then this value will be #N/A. |
| Calculation method | The test time when the animal becomes immobile for the last time in the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
Total time active
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was active during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the Test duration of the period minus Total time inactive during the period. Note: The 'Test duration' for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Total time inactive
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was inactive during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each inactive episode in the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the sum of the duration of the inactive episodes in the period. |
Episodes of inactivity which fall partly in a period, but which start or end outside it, are calculated as if they started or ended at the start or end of the period, respectively. This means that it is possible to have a result for Total inactive episodes in the period which is zero and a result for Total time inactive in the period which is not zero. For example, if the animal is inactive at the start of a period and remains inactive throughout the period, then the Total time inactive in the period will be the period's duration, but the Total inactive episodes in the period will be zero (because no transition from an active state to an inactive state occurred during the period).
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Total active episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was active during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an inactive to an active state. For the purposes of this calculation, the animal is assumed to be inactive at the start of the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the number of transitions from an inactive to an active state that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Total inactive episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was inactive during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an active to an inactive state. For the purposes of this calculation, the animal is assumed to be active at the start of the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the number of transitions from an active to an inactive state that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Longest active episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest continuous period of activity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of activity is calculated when the episode ends. The longest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the longest episode of activity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Shortest active episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest continuous period of activity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of activity is calculated when the episode ends. The shortest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the shortest episode of activity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Longest inactive episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest continuous period of inactivity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of inactivity is calculated when the episode ends. The longest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the longest episode of inactivity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Shortest inactive episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest continuous period of inactivity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of inactivity is calculated when the episode ends. The shortest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period, the result is the shortest episode of inactivity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the immobility detection element specifies that mobility should NOT be detected, then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body completed an entire rotation of 360°. |
| Calculation method | If Advanced rotation analysis is NOT being used: The animal's centre point is taken as a virtual origin; i.e. this origin is adjusted to be in the same place in each frame. A line is then taken from the animal's centre point to its head creating a vector. The angle between successive vectors is calculated and while the angle continues to have the same sign, the angles are accumulated - when the accumulated angle reaches 360°, the animal has completed a rotation. In fact this is a simplification, as the exact method used takes partial reversals of direction into account - see the figure below. |
Figure 2. A partial reversal in direction doesn't alter the end of the rotation. A complete reversal however, means the animal has to rotate back to the reversal point to complete the rotation.
If Advanced rotation analysis IS being used then the method of calculation is different and is described here.
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Clockwise rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body completed an entire rotation of 360° in a clockwise direction. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Anti-clockwise rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body completed an entire rotation of 360° in an anti-clockwise direction. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Partial rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body rotated by at least the Partial rotation angle defined in the protocol but didn't complete an entire rotation. |
| Calculation method | Described here. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A partial rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Clockwise partial rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body rotated by at least the Partial rotation angle defined in the protocol in a clockwise direction but didn't complete an entire rotation. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A partial rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Anti-clockwise partial rotations of the animal's body
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's body rotated by at least the Partial rotation angle defined in the protocol in an anticlockwise direction but didn't complete an entire rotation. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. A partial rotation is deemed to occur at the time it is completed. |
Absolute turn angle
| Description | Reports the sum of the absolute angle between each movement vector of the animal. |
| Calculation method | A vector of movement from one position of the animal's centre point to the next is created. For each vector, the angle between it and the previous vector is calculated with anti-clockwise movement being negative and clockwise movement being positive (i.e. the angle is from -180° to 180°). The absolute value of this angle is summed for all the positions of the animal throughout the test or time period. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is the based on just those positions within the specific time period. |
| Notes | From this measure, it is easy to use calculations to derive measures such as Meander and Angular velocity. The former is the Absolute turn angle divided by the Total distance travelled and the latter is the Absolute turn angle divided by the Test duration. |
Absolute head turn angle
| Description | Reports the cumulative absolute angle through which the animal's head moved. For example, if the animal moved its head 30° to the left and then moved its head 45° to the right, the absolute head turn angle would be 75°. |
| Calculation method | For each position of the animal's head a vector is created from the animal's centre point to the head. The angle between this vector and the same vector for the previous position of the animal's head is calculate and the absolute value of this angle is summed throughout the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
Clockwise head turn angle
| Description | Reports the cumulative clockwise angle through which the animal's head moved. For example, if the animal moved its head 30° to the left and then moved its head 45° to the right, the clockwise head turn angle would be 45°. |
| Calculation method | For each position of the animal's head a vector is created from the animal's centre point to the head. The angle between this vector and the same vector for the previous position of the animal's head is calculate and if the angle is positive it is added to the sum of clockwise head turn angles for the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
Anti-clockwise head turn angle
| Description | Reports the cumulative anti-clockwise angle through which the animal's head moved. For example, if the animal moved its head 30° to the left and then moved its head 45° to the right, the anti-clockwise head turn angle would be 30°. |
| Calculation method | For each position of the animal's head a vector is created from the animal's centre point to the head. The angle between this vector and the same vector for the previous position of the animal's head is calculate and if the angle is negative it is added to the sum of clockwise head turn angles for the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
Average X position (as a percentage of the apparatus width)
| Description | Reports the average X position of the animal's centre point in relation to the apparatus. The left side of the apparatus is considered 0%, and the right side is considered 100%. For example, an animal might have an average X position of 25%, meaning that, on average, its X position was a quarter of the way across the apparatus. |
| Calculation method | Each X coordinate of the animal is multiplied by the duration for which the animal remained at that coordinate, and these values are summed over the test or time period. The average X coordinate is then calculated by dividing this sum by the duration of the test or time period. |
The coordinate of the left side of the apparatus is subtracted from this average coordinate, and the resulting value is expressed as a percentage of the apparatus width.
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is based on just those positions of the animal that fall within the time period. |
| Notes | This measure can yield a result that is not within the apparatus. For example, consider a ring shaped apparatus (such as a Zero maze). If the animal spent half the test on the left side of the ring and the other half on the right side, the average position would be at 50% (i.e. in the middle of the ring), even though that is not within the apparatus at all. |
Average Y position (as a percentage of the apparatus height)
| Description | Reports the average Y position of the animal's centre point in relation to the apparatus. The top of the apparatus is considered 0%, and the bottom is considered 100%. For example, an animal might have an average Y position of 25%, meaning that, on average, its Y position was a quarter of the way down the apparatus. |
| Calculation method | Each Y coordinate of the animal is multiplied by the duration for which the animal remained at that coordinate, and these values are summed over the test or time period. The average Y coordinate is then calculated by dividing this sum by the duration of the test or time period. |
The coordinate of the top of the apparatus is subtracted from this average coordinate, and the resulting value is expressed as a percentage of the apparatus height.
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is based on just those positions of the animal that fall within the time period. |
| Notes | This measure can yield a result that is not within the apparatus. For example, consider a ring shaped apparatus (such as a Zero maze). If the animal spent half the test at the top of the ring and the other half at the bottom, the average position would be at 50% (i.e. in the middle of the ring), even though that is not within the apparatus at all. |
Number of rears
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal reared. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of times the animal started to rear. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Total time rearing
| Description | Reports the total amount of time for which the animal was rearing. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each bout of rearing that occurred during the test. If the animal was rearing at the end of the test, then the last bout of rearing ends with the test end. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Latency to first rear
| Description | Reports the latency to the first time that the animal reared. |
| Calculation method | The time when the first bout of rearing started. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Average duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the average duration of the rearing bouts. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Maximum duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest bout of rearing. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each bout of rearing is calculated and the longest bout is found. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Minimum duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest bout of rearing. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each bout of rearing is calculated and the shortest bout is found. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal, and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Path efficiency
| Description | This measure represents an index of the efficiency of the path taken by the animal to get from the first position in the test to the last position. A value of 1 indicates perfect efficiency - the animal moved in a straight line - values less than 1 indicate decreasing efficiency. |
| Calculation method | The straight-line distance between the first position in the test and the last position is divided by the total distance travelled by the animal during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is the straight-line distance between the animal's position at the start of the time period or time segment and the animal's position at the end of the period or segment, divided by the distance the animal travelled during the period or segment. (Also see notes below.) |
| Notes | This measure is intended for use in water-maze experiments, but is available in all tests. |
This measure cannot be calculated if the animal passed through a hidden zone during the test, as the distance it will have travelled while hidden is not known. In such cases the measure's result will be shown as #N/A.
Analysing this measure across time is usually not very meaningful, but can be helpful where a time marker is set at some specific moment in a test and the time marker is subsequently used to define a time period. In this situation the result for the time period can be used to determine path efficiency up to the moment the time marker was set.
Number of line crossings
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's centre point moved from one area of the apparatus map to another - i.e. crossed the lines which constitute the map. |
| Calculation method | The apparatus is divided into unique areas by the apparatus map. For each animal position recorded in the experiment, the area which contains the animal's centre point is found. Each time this changes the measure's value if increased by 1. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure DOES NOT count transitions between ZONES. It counts transitions between areas of the apparatus map, irrespective of whether the areas are part of a zone. This measure is primarily intended to provide an easy way to measure 'grid line crossings' in a similar way to that commonly used manually - viz.: A regular grid is drawn on the apparatus and the experimenter counts the number of times the animal moves from one grid square to another. It's important to understand that ANY-maze uses the animal's centre point when calculating the measure and therefore it can be prone to 'spurious entries' if an animal straddles a line between two areas (i.e. by moving a very small amount, the animal can apparently cross a line many times). This problem can be overcome by setting one zone for each area, using the percentage of the animal that's in the zone to score zone entries, and then using a calculation to sum all the entries into these zones. |
On/off inputs positive reversal
| Description | The number of times the sequence in which on/off inputs were being activated changed from a decreasing sequence to an increasing one. |
| Calculation method | This measure is only applied to on/off inputs which have index values defined. As an input is activated, the system checks to see whether the index value of the newly activated input is greater or less than the index value of the previously active input. If the newly activated input has a lower index value, then the inputs are being activated in a decreasing sequence; whereas if it is higher then they are being activated in an increasing sequence. Once the 'direction' of the sequence has been determined, then any change in direction is deemed to be a reversal. This measure counts the number of times the sequence changes from decreasing to increasing. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a time period is the number of positive reversals which occurred during the time period. |
On/off inputs negative reversal
| Description | The number of times the sequence in which on/off inputs were being activated changed from an increasing sequence to a decreasing one. |
| Calculation method | This measure is only applied to on/off inputs which have index values defined. As an input is activated, the system checks to see whether the index value of the newly activated input is greater or less than the index value of the previously active input. If the newly activated input has a lower index value, then the inputs are being activated in a decreasing sequence; whereas if it is higher then they are being activated in an increasing sequence. Once the 'direction' of the sequence has been determined, then any change in direction is deemed to be a reversal. This measure counts the number of times the sequence changes from increasing to decreasing. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a time period is the number of negative reversals which occurred during the time period. |
Tracking quality
| Description | Classifies the tracking in a test as either Good or Poor. |
| Calculation method | The determination of tracking quality is based on two things: how many frames captured by the camera were successfully tracked, and the total amount of time that the animal was not tracked for. The actual calculation is complex as it takes into consideration the duration of each non-tracked period, with long periods being seen as much worse than short periods. For example, in a 2-minute test the animal might not be tracked for half a second twenty times during the test - however, ANY-maze would never have 'lost' the animal for more than half a second so the tracking errors this would cause would be minor. On the other hand if in a 2-minute test the animal was not tracked for a single period of 10 seconds then the total time the animal was 'lost' would be the same as in the first example, but in this case the tracking error could be quite significant (the animal could have moved quite a lot in 10 seconds). The calculation also takes into consideration the duration of the test. For example. if an animal is 'lost' for 30 seconds in a 2-minute test then that is quite significant, but if it was lost for 30 seconds in a 24 hour test then probably this would make no real difference to the test results. |
| Notes | ANY-maze's assessment of the tracking as Good or Poor is intended as a guide to the experimenter. You may, for example, wish to review tests ANY-maze classifies as having poor tracking. |
This measure can be useful when the option to remove jumps is switched on, as the removal of jumps can leave a test with long untracked periods, which will cause the test's tracking to be classified as Poor.
Number of centre positions recorded
| Description | Reports the number of positions of the centre of the animal that were tracked and recorded in the results. Note that ANY-maze may have tracked the centre of the animal in more positions than are reported here, because not all position are necessarily stored in the test's results - this depends on the setting for the maximum number of positions to record each second. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of centre positions in the results. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is the number of positions of the centre of the animal that fall within the time period. |
Number of head positions recorded
| Description | Reports the number of positions of the head of the animal that were tracked and recorded in the results. Note that ANY-maze may have tracked the head of the animal in more positions than are reported here, because not all position are necessarily stored in the test's results - this depends on the setting for the maximum number of positions to record each second. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of head positions in the results. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is the number of positions of the head of the animal that fall within the time period. |
| Notes | The number of tail positions tracked is identical to the number of head positions tracked. |
RAPC - Type 1 errors
| Description | Reports the total number of Type 1 errors in the RAPC apparatus. A Type 1 error occurs when the animal tries to open a door that is latched shut. |
| Calculation method | The number of door 'openings' for all the doors in the RAPC apparatus is analysed (note that doors which are latched shut will still be registered as 'opening' when the animal pushes against the door, because the door will move a few millimetres). The last door opened in each chamber is, necessarily, the non-latched door; therefore the other doors must be latched. The number of openings of the latched doors is summed and this is the total number of Type 1 errors. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the protocol includes 12 'switch inputs' with 'index' values of 1 - 12. |
RAPC - Type 2 errors
| Description | Reports the total number of Type 2 errors in the RAPC apparatus. A Type 2 error occurs when the animal opens a non-latched door but does not go though it into the next chamber. |
| Calculation method | The number of door 'openings' for all the doors in the RAPC apparatus is analysed (note that doors which are latched shut will still be registered as 'opening' when the animal pushes against the door, because the door will move a few millimetres). The last door opened in each chamber is, necessarily, the non-latched door; therefore the other doors must be latched. The number of openings of the non-latched door for each chamber less 1 is the number of Type 2 errors for that chamber. The sum for all the chambers is the total number of Type 2 errors. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the protocol includes 12 'switch inputs' with 'index' values of 1 - 12. |
RAPC - Door sequence
| Description | Reports the sequence of non-latched doors in the RAPC apparatus, where the doors in each chamber are numbered 1 through 3. Thus a value of 1321 would mean that door 1 between the first and second chamber was not latched, door 3 between the second and third chamber was not latched, and so on. |
| Calculation method | The number of door 'openings' for all the doors in the RAPC apparatus is analysed (note that doors which are latched shut will still be registered as 'opening' when the animal pushes against the door because the door will move a few millimetres). The last door opened in each chamber is, necessarily, the non-latched door. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the protocol includes 12 'switch inputs' with 'index' values of 1 - 12. |
See also:
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ANY-maze help topic T0130
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