ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Inputs and outputs > Shockers > Setting up a shocker > Specifying a shocker's default intensity

Specifying a shocker's default intensity

You are advised to read the Important Information at the end of this topic.

In brief

You should use the Shock intensity field on the shocker's settings page to specify the default intensity (current) of the shock that the shocker will administer.

Details

When a shocker is activated by a procedure, it will administer a shock of the intensity you specify here. So, for example, if you are setting up a Fear Conditioning protocol in which animals will receive a shock of 1mA, this is the value that you will enter here.

Note, however, that procedures can also alter the shock intensity to some other value, for example 1.5mA. This is why the intensity that you enter in this field is the default intensity; it is used by default when the shocker is activated, but it can be changed.

Limits

You can enter any value you like from 0.01mA to 10mA. You don't need to enter the units (as the value must be in milliamps) and you can enter decimal values. For example 0.01 and 3.23 are both valid entries.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The shocker you are using may not be able to administer the level of shock you specify. For example, the San Diego Instruments shocker can administer a maximum shock of 5mA. If you specify an intensity that is above the shocker's maximum, then the maximum will be used.

Also note that the shock level actually administered will be rounded down to the nearest 'step' that the shocker supports. For example, a shocker might support 256 different levels from 0mA to 5mA, in which case its step will be 0.0196mA. So in this example, if you specify a shock of 2.5mA, what would actually be delivered would be a shock of 2.49mA, because that's as close to 2.5mA as the shocker can get.

You can find out the maximum shock intensity and the shock 'step' for a shocker by switching to the I/O page, selecting the device which contains the shocker, and then choosing Shocker in Device ports. The Specification section of the information panel will show the required details.

ANY-maze help topic T0223