ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Behaviour > Sequences > Setting up a sequence > Setting up a sequence step

Setting up a sequence step

Introduction

All sequences should include at least two steps (but can't include more than 31). Steps are added to a sequence by ensuring that the sequence element is selected in the protocol list and then clicking the Add item button and selecting New Sequence Step from the menu which appears. New steps are always added to the end of the sequence.

The New Sequence Step menu option will be disabled if a sequence is not selected in the protocol list.

Figure 1. Part of the protocol list showing the steps of a 'Rotation' sequence.

After adding a step, you need to specify which part of the apparatus the animal needs to enter in order to complete the step. There are two ways of doing this; by selecting areas in the apparatus map or by specifying a particular zone.

Defining a step by selecting the areas in the apparatus map

A sequence step represents an area (or areas) of the apparatus which the animal must enter in order to complete the step. You can specify the area simply by clicking on the relevant parts of the apparatus map - the area(s) you select will be shaded in blue. To deselect an area, just click it a second time. Of course, if you have more than one piece of apparatus in your protocol, then you will need to specify the areas in each piece of apparatus separately - the Protocol page's Image pane will be showing all the apparatus maps, so this is a straightforward process.

There are no restrictions on selecting areas, so:

Important: ANY-maze will consider that the animal has entered the area you select (and thus completed the step), when its centre point enters the area.

Defining a step by specifying a zone

Although it's often simplest to specify the areas of the apparatus map which constitute a step by selecting them in the apparatus map (see previous section), this isn't always possible or necessarily desirable.

For example, in a place preference box, you might want to count how often the animal moves from a 'Drug-paired side' through a 'Tunnel' and into a 'Non-drug-paired side'. The problem would be that the physical side of the apparatus which is drug-paired would differ from animal to animal. The solution to this is to specify the step using a zone. In other words, for the first step, the animal would have to move into the 'Drug-paired side zone', wherever that happens to be for the animal being tested, then into the 'Tunnel' and then into the 'Non-drug-paired side zone'. Indeed, in this example the 'Tunnel' would probably be a hidden zone (i.e. the animal would disappear from the camera's view while in the tunnel) so this step would also have to specified using a zone rather than selecting areas in the apparatus map.

Another situation when it's better to use a zone to define a step is when you want to compare sequence and zone measures. This is because ANY-maze will consider that the animal has entered the zone (and thus completed the step) based on the zone's entry settings, rather than simply on the centre point (which is what it does for steps defined using areas). For example, imagine you have set up a sequence in which the animal must move from area A to area B. Also imagine you have created a zone for area A, and you have specified that the animal is in the zone when its head is in the zone. Now you compare the latency to enter Zone A with the latency to start the sequence. Despite the fact that to start the sequence the animal must enter area A, you'll find that the latency to enter Zone A is less than the latency to start the sequence! The reason will be because when the animal's head enters the area, a zone entry will be scored, but the sequence won't begin until the animal's centre point enters the area (which will happen later, or may not even happen at all!). If you set up the sequence so that the first step required the animal to enter Zone A (rather than area A), then the latencies would agree.

You can mix how you define steps within a single sequence so, for example, some steps could be specified by selecting areas in the apparatus map while others could be specified by specifying zones.

Editing a step

You can edit a step at any time, whether before, during or after an experiment has been performed. To edit a step, you simply have to select it in the protocol list - its settings and areas will be displayed in the Settings and Image panes, respectively.

Deleting a step

You can delete a step at any time by selecting the step in the protocol list and clicking the Remove item button in the ribbon bar.

Deleting a step will remove it from the sequence, and the steps below it will simply be moved up. This means that the remaining steps will be renumbered, which can make it look like the step hasn't been deleted. For example, if you delete Step 1 in a three step sequence then the old Step 2 will be renumbered Step 1 and the old Step 3 will be renumbered Step 2. Thus, as there will still be a Step 1, it will appear that Step 1 wasn't deleted.

If you delete all the steps in a sequence, then the sequence will continue to exist but all of its results will be either zero or undefined.

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ANY-maze help topic T0353