The T-maze is a popular tool for the investigation of spatial learning an memory in lab animals. Sometimes a simple T-maze is used, sometimes start and goal boxes, visual cues, food rewards, guillotine doors, or other tools are used to make the test more sophisticated. No matter what your experimental design is, EthoVision XT is a great addition to your set-up. You can even use it to fully automate your test! 

• Calculate and analyze parameters related to learning and memory automatically, such as the time needed to reach the rewarded arm of the T-maze.
• Analyze behavior in relation to zones, such as the number of entries into the left arm.
• Start and stop trials automatically, for example: start tracking as soon as the rat leaves the start zone.
• Select and compare different treatment groups or analyze the progress of learning during consecutive trials.

Introduction
The T-maze test is used to investigate spatial learning and memory in rats and mice. While some tests simply measure the animal’s natural preference for one of the arms, others focus on the ability to learn to discriminate between the two arms based on visual, olfactory, tactile or even auditory cues. Often the results related to the learning curve or memories of different treatment groups are compared.

No matter what type of T-maze test you need to perform, we can provide you with the ideal solution. EthoVision® XT accurately tracks your mouse or rat as it walks through the maze, and analyzes its behavior in great detail. To complete the solution, we can supply you with a flexible, modular T-maze, for either rats or mice.

How it works
A T-maze test set-up typically consists of a T-maze and a camera. The camera sends images to the computer running EthoVision XT, which in turn tracks your animal and analyzes parameters of interest. The T-maze itself is a modular maze consisting of one long arm and two shorter ones, connected at a central hub, like in the letter ‘T’. You can use manual or automated guillotine doors, a start box, and other accessories to assemble the maze of your choice. The versatility of this modular construction also has the advantage that you can add an arm to easily create a plus maze for more testing possibilities.

With T-mazes you can investigate different kinds of behavior. While some studies focus on the natural preference for an arm or the food item presented in the arm, others investigate the natural alternation behavior of rodents. However, most research examines the learning ability of rodents. For example, discriminative learning is often studied using different cues in combination with a food reward in the ‘correct’ arm. Using the reward, the rat is trained to enter the ‘correct’ arm, no matter if it is on the left or right side.

EthoVision XT is perfectly able to measure the behavior of interest, as it automatically calculates parameters such as the time it took the animal to reach the goal arm, or the number of entries into the ‘incorrect’ arm. EthoVision XT also measures several path shape parameters. If the animal shows a high mean turn angle, this represents high path sinuosity, indicating the animal is not moving towards the goal zone in a direct line. A decrease in this mean turn angle can be interpreted as a learning effect. If you use multiple body points tracking, you can get even more accurate data on the movement, pathway, and orientation of the rat or mouse. Without the use of markers, you can calculate additional parameters giving you more in-depth analysis of animal behavior. For example, it is useful to be able to discriminate between the animal only poking its nose around the corner and the animal moving its entire body into the goal zone in one of the arms.

With EthoVision XT, all results are easily compared over the course of consecutive trials of one animal and between different groups of animals. Groups can be based on age, sex, genetic strain, drug treatment, the different cues present in the arms, etc. The software provides an easy-to-use data selection tool for efficient analysis. And of course, you can also visualize the results, giving you an immediate feel for your data.

Another useful function of EthoVision XT is the Automatic Trial Control. This allows you to program EthoVision XT to automatically start and stop tracking the animal, based on the conditions you specify. For example, start tracking when the animal has left the release zone, and stop tracking as soon as the animal has spent two minutes in either one of the arms.