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 Social Contact Plug-In
Introduction
Based on the data the Viewer main program acquires, this plug-in reliably evaluates social contacts between animals. It was developed for rats and mice, but it works with other animals with a bilateral symmetry as well. The Viewer software can detect and track such an animal's head, body and tail. These pieces of information are transferred to the plug-in, where the data is inspected with regard to contact specific spatial movement, relative positions and
postures.
The figure shows how the three tracked points are used to generate additional data by drawing lines between them. Besides mere position data these lines deliver angles, relative position to each other and extrapolations that indicate haunting or viewing directions.
The Social contact Plug-In automates registration of contacts with two, three or six animals in one arena. That implies collecting data about the following parameters:
• average and total distances of the animals to each other
• number of contacts per animal and
• duration of contacts
• activity during a contact
• tail movement speed during a contact
• angle of approach
• approach distance
• differentiation between active and passive contacts
• differentiation between aggressive and submissive behavior
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Different kinds of contacts
| Result data of single animals can be compared and differences in the behavior of groups can be examined. Not only the interaction of groups is revealable, these groups can show different internal contact behavior, too. |
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Parameters
| The second generic parameter is the Heading Angle Error. It is defined as the amount of misalignment between the animals orientation at a certain point of the track and the direct path from the animal to the center of the platform at the starting point. At the beginning of a test generally the mouse is positioned facing the rim of the basin. It has to turn around to head for the platform. As it makes no sense to measure the heading angle before the animal turned around, you can define a certain track length (Swim length) that has to be recorded before the software measures the Heading Angle Error. Accordingly, you can be sure not to measure the animals first rotation and receive false angle data, respectively. |
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Reference point and Target Zone Latency
The point in time when an animal leaves or enters a zone can be logged in different ways with the Viewer. As experiment setups and scientific objectives vary, it is up to you to decide which of the three tracked points (head, body, tail) refers to the zone statistics.
For the target zone there are additional setup features. You can exactly define the occasion that triggers target zone latency measurement. Using only the head point will produce a latency that covers the time between experiment start and the head points target zone entry. Assumed your mice don't swim backwards, this should be the first tracking point entering the zone. If you consider the platform as detected not until the animal stands on it with all four paws, you should check all three tracking points.
In case the animal doesn't find the target, the plug in can set the target latency either to zero or to experiment duration.
Analysis
The Experiment list contains a tabular overview of the results of all experiments in the current result file. The rows represent single experiments (data-sets). The columns contain the recorded parameters. The Experiment list contains general data and result parameters (element 1) as well as quadrant related data (element 2).
Single data-sets can be deleted from a result pool or can be shifted from one result pool to another (element 3).
Result files can pool an arbitrary number of experiments. You can open several result files at the same time to compare groups statistically. Each result file is represented in the Experiment list with its own tab (element 4).
Result pool alterations can be useful for group comparison or to eliminate aborted experiments. |
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General Data:
No: Number of the experiment in the pool
Date: Date of experiment execution
Time: Time of experiment execution
Use: Use for statistical computation or not
Swim speed
Swim length
Direct swim
Heading Angle Error
Target Zone Crossing
Average distance (cm) to target zone
Latency
Quadrant Data:
Latency
Number of Visits
Visits [%]
Time [s]
Time [%]
Animal Data
Editable table field at the tables right fringe. Enter an animal ID or name by mouse clicking a field in the column
Short Description
Editable table field at the tables right fringe. Enter a text by mouse clicking a field in the column
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Statistics
The software automatically calculates the mean value and the standard deviation for each parameter, averaged over all listed and selected experiments. However, you can exclude one or several experiments from statistic computation. The statistics table will be updated automatically.
The Statistics table columns resemble the Experiment list, except the first three column titles (Date, Time, Use for statistics). The additional n column (element 1) shows the total number of data-sets that contributed to the displayed mean values. Under the Statistics table you find two tabs at choice: Single and Group (element 2).
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Single
The table lines contain mean values (Average, first row), standard deviations (StD, second row) and standard error (StE, third row) based on all used data-sets of the selected result file in the Experiment list. Example: in figure 16 four experiments were conducted that produced an average Swim length (Swim L.) of 198,11 cm. |
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Group
These statistics relate to all opened result files.
Each result file is represented by a row in the Statistics table (element 1). For group result comparison you find an averaged value for each parameter in the table fields. |
Data visualization
Three visualization options are at hand in the Water Maze Plug-In. You can switch between
Setup: a configurable aspect of the experimental setup - a useful tool for screenshots
Graph: charts that refer to the statistics table above
Track: sketches of all zones and tracks of the experiments in the displayed result pool.
Graphs
The graph refers to the visible tab in the Statistics table. Select the data you want to visualize from the drop down menu above the graph (element 3). All parameters represented in the table can be displayed in graphs.
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In case the Single tab of the Statistics table is selected, the bar charts or line charts represent the values in the average table row. The horizontal lines above the bars show the standard deviations (StD) or the standard errors (StE). They are superimposed on the bars, or in other words: they refer to the average value as base line. You can either display the StE or the StD. Make your choice by the radio-buttons above the chart (figure 9, element 2)
In case the Group tab of the Statistics table is selected, the bar charts represent the values in each group table row.
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Setup
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The Setup tab shows a video frame image of the arena and information on the ''virtual setup'' of the data-set that is marked in the Experiment list. By the checkboxes on the left of the picture you can hide or show specific display elements. |
Track
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The Track sketches combine the current Water Maze configuration with the saved track data. |
The complete Water Maze Plug-In interface:
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