ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Behaviour > Zones > Setting up a zone

Setting up a zone

Introduction

For a general introduction to zones, see An introduction to zones.

To add a zone to a protocol, click the Add item button in the ribbon bar and select New Zone from the menu which appears.

The New Zone menu option will be disabled until the protocol includes at least one apparatus item.

Choosing zones

When choosing what zones to include in your protocol, you should consider the logical division of your apparatus into zones rather than the physical division.

For example, in a T-maze you may want a 'Reward arm' zone which would sometimes be on the left and sometimes on the right side of the T. You shouldn't create a 'left side' zone and a 'right side' zone; instead, you should create a single 'Reward arm' zone because this is the logical division you want - you'll sort out the physical location of the zone when you define it. An easy way to think about this is to consider the results you want - for example, you'd want to know 'Latency to first reward arm entry' and not 'Latency to first left side entry'.

What you need to do

Each of the steps below is a link, which you can click for more information.

 1.Enter the zone name. 
 2.Specify the zone's type.  

  

For a standard zone:

 3.Optionally, specify a Whishaw's Corridor for the zone. 
 4.Specify whether the zone is a movable zone. 
 5.For a zone which is movable, specify whether plots should be aligned based on the zone's position. 
 6.For a zone which is not movable, select the areas of the apparatus map which constitute the zone. 
 7.For a zone which is movable, set up the zone's positions. 
 8.Choose how ANY-maze should detect entries into the zone.  

  

For a hidden zone:

 9.Specify whether the zone is the only hidden zone. 
 10.Choose how ANY-maze should detect exits from the hidden zone.  

  

For an investigation zone:

 11.Specify how close to the zone the animal must be to be investigating it. 
 12.Specify whether the animal must be oriented towards the zone to be investigating it. 
 13.Specify whether investigation should exclude the time the animal's centre is in the zone. 
 14.Optionally, specify a Whishaw's Corridor for the zone. 
 15.Specify whether the zone is a movable zone. 
 16.For an investigation zone which is movable, specify whether plots should be aligned based on the zone's position. 
 17.For an investigation zone which is not movable, select the areas of the apparatus map which constitute the zone. 
 18.For an investigation zone which is movable, set up the zone's positions.  

See also:

 •Adding elements to a protocol 
 •Editing a zone 
 •Deleting a zone 

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ANY-maze help topic T0318