- USES : Drugs'
dependence and their sedative effects , to measure the action of anxiogenic
and anxiolytic drugs , memorisation capacity , reactivity to novelty ,
usual mechanism , exploratory behaviour , motor activity , reaction times
, the attention ...
-
I°) Apparatus :
- These cages are composed of a base structure
on which can be added different accessories according to the use. That's
why the modular system can be used as well as to measure activity and/or
anxiety, consumption, dependence, memory. These cages permits consequently
to have a better flexibility in use, a lower cost and to gain space.
- You can change rats to mice by keeping
the same enclosure, cables, interface and software.
-
- ACCESSORIES:
-
- * Retractable lever
- * Food/liquid dispenser
- * House light/cue light
- * Nose poke
- * Syringe pump
- * Scrambler
- * Sound generator 1 or 2 tones
- * Activity measure (horizontal or/and vertical)
-
-
- These apparatus are connected to an electronic
interface, which permits the communication with the computer.
- II°)
Software:
- The software for windows permits to manage
2 racks of 8 cages. Each cage works independently.
- * Exercises' edition (thanks to the array
at the bottom of the graphic representation), exercises' library creation,
- * Exercise piloting: lights' turning ON/OFF, presentation
or not of a reward...
- * Graphical follow-up,
- * Records' storage,
- * Data storage by programmable time units (from 1 sec to
many hours),
- * Record duration: from 1 minute to many days,
- * Data : Front, back, locomotor activity and rearings
( AV,AR,VV,R) ; pressures on lever, nose-pokes' visits, troughs' visits
(PA,PB,TC,TD) ; Consumption; Injections...
-
- A cage representation on screen
-
- - On the top right: On/Off button
of the cage and at the bottom the "Experiment timer".
- - On the top left: Animal label
and on its right the experiment label.
- - On the bottom, array which
permits to write your exercise and during the experiment it permits to
follow the current executed line.
- - Animal graphic representation
by a circle( white ), rearings are represented by a grey circle (like in
the example above).
-
-
- * Moreover, the system
is sold with a program which permits to manage recorded experiments.
It permits notably to combine your files so as to compare results
and to gain disk space. The output variables' presentations and
their chine tics can be visualised either with whatever software which
accepts the text format (Notepad, Wordpad, Word...) or with EXCEL.
