ANY-maze Help > Using ANY-maze > Running an experiment > Running tests

Running tests

Tests are run in the right-hand side of the Tests page. This shows the live video picture of your apparatus, with a selection of buttons above the picture which are used to actually control the test.

Starting a test

The method used to start a test will depend on whether you chose to use the auto-start feature in the protocol - by default, this option is switched on.

With auto-start turned on, you start a test as follows:

2.

WITHOUT putting the animal in the apparatus (and without you, or anybody else, being in the video picture) click the button - the status will change to Waiting to start.

4.

If for some reason the test doesn't auto-start, then you can click the button a second time to start it manually.

When the computer sees you in the video picture, it will show a 'person' image in the top left corner of the video picture - this indicates that it can 'see someone'. When you leave the picture, this image will disappear. If you notice that this image is shown when no one is in the picture  (i.e. the computer is confused) then you can click it to tell the  computer that the picture it's seeing doesn't have anyone in it - the image will then go away and only reappear when you really do enter the video picture.

If you're not using auto-start, then you will need to start tests manually as follows:

3.

As quickly as possible, click the button - the test will start, the computer will beep to confirm this, and the status will change to show the test's elapsed time or time remaining.

Rather than clicking the button to start a test, you can press the apparatus's test control key instead. This is one of the computer's 'F' keys, and is specified in the apparatus element of the protocol.

In general, you will probably want to use a test control key to start tests rather than clicking the button, as it's easier to do.

Pausing a test

There may be circumstances when you would like to pause a running test - for example, if the animal jumps off (or out of) the apparatus. (Of course, you may want to end the test instead - see next section.)

To pause a test, you should click the button. The test clock will stop and the system will stop recording the animal's position (although it will continue to track it, so as not to lose it).

To restart the test, simply click the button again.

Ending a test

In general, tests will end either because the test duration has elapsed (the test duration is specified in a stage element of the protocol) or because an Action which is set to end the test has been triggered.

Nevertheless, there may be occasions when you would like to end a test manually and you can do this by simply clicking the button. Alternatively, if you've defined a test control key for the apparatus, then you can press the key.

In fact, ANY-maze won't end the test immediately but will first ask you what you would like to do. Either:

Continuing tests which ANY-maze ends automatically

ANY-maze will automatically end a test if an Action that's set to end the test is triggered. However, such actions can optionally be set to allow the user to 'manually override' the test end - i.e. to force the test to continue.

For example, imagine you have a water-maze and you've defined an action which will end the test when the animal enters the island zone. In a particular test, an animal finds the island but immediately jumps off it and continues to swim around. In this case ANY-maze will have ended the test (because the animal entered the island zone) but you might want to continue it.

If the Action that was used allows test continuation, then in fact what ANY-maze will do is to end the test but continue tracking the animal for a further 10 seconds. If, during this period, you click the button then the system will ignore the test end and continue testing as if it had never occurred  - and because it keeps tracking during this 10 second period, you won't lose any tracking data.

On the other hand, you might want to really end the test in which case you can either:

•

Click the button

In all the above cases, the extra tracking data which the system recorded after the 'test end' event will simply be discarded.

Specifying the location of movable zones

As you may know, you can define zones in ANY-maze which aren't always in the same position - for example the reward arm of T-maze might be on the left in some tests and on the right in others. In many cases, such movable zones will either have a fixed position within each animal (i.e. the reward arm might always be on the same side for a specific animal) or they follow a specific sequence within an animal's trials, for example the reward arm is on the left in the first trial and on the right in the second.

However, there may be occasions when the location is simply too complex to define using either of these options. In this case, you will need to actually tell ANY-maze where the zone is at the start of each test.

In this case, before you start the test, ANY-maze will show the possible positions of the zone in the video picture (by highlighting them in purple) and will ask you to click on the location to use for the zone in this test.

Once you've specified the position, you should click the button which will either change the test status to Ready or, if there is another movable zone, repeat the same process for it.

Scoring other behaviours during a test

As part of an experiment's protocol, you can define keys which you'll use to record behaviours such as grooming, which ANY-maze can't detect automatically. For example, you might define G as a grooming key. In this case, you would watch the test on the screen and whenever the animal starts grooming, you would press the G key on the keyboard; when the animal stops grooming you would release the key. If specified in the tracking options, then the system would show the word 'Grooming' next to the animal whenever the key is pressed down. (In fact, depending how the key has been defined, you might not need to hold it down, you might just need to press it once to indicate that Grooming has started and then press it again to indicate that it has ended).

By the way, you're not limited to scoring just one such additional behaviour - but trying to score more than about three can be bit confusing.

If you forget which key to press for each behaviour, then you can find out by clicking the button.

Doing other things while a test is running

You might be surprised to learn that you can do almost anything you like while a test is running. For example, you could switch to the Results page to check on the experiment's results so far; you could switch to the Experiment page, perhaps to add some more animals into the experiment; or you could navigate around within the Experiment management reports - perhaps to access the animal's details page and record its treatment, weight, sex, etc. (this is a good way to use up some of the 'dead' time while tests are running).

The only thing you can't do is alter some parts of the protocol - for example, you can't add a new zone while a test is running.

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ANY-maze help topic T0041