Orlando, 8 November 2002 - At this year’s 32nd annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Noldus Information Technology successfully showcased its latest innovative solutions for the behavioral neuroscience market.

Noldus introduced EthoVision 3.0, the latest version of its famous video tracking system, at Neuroscience 2002. “The expectations were high, but the outcome was even higher”, said Lucas Noldus, Managing Director of Noldus Information Technology. “Noldus Information Technology is always working closely together with its customers to design the next generation of tools for behavioral research and to provide them with innovative solutions. This together with our continuous striving to develop products and offer solutions that help today’s scientist to improve his or her productivity and the quality of the data, are clearly reasons why the Noldus booth at Neuroscience was visited that often and the interest in our products was that high.”  

EthoVision 3.0 revolutionizes the way video tracking and automated observation is carried out. EthoVision was already known to be the best video tracking system of its sort available on the market today that automates behavioral tests. Version 3.0 now additionally offers state-of-the-art video tracking from digital video files. This opens up possibilities to track much faster than real-time (depending on the experimental set-up and computer hardware) or to always track perfect. It also offers new experiment control functions to fully automate the experiment: conditions, based on spatial, temporal, behavioral or external inputs (through TTL-in, or Event Logging Interface), can now control external devices (through TTL-out). Also new for version 3.0 is mobility detection that detects body movement independent of spatial displacement. Three states of mobility can be distinguished: immobility, mobility and strong mobility. The mobility parameter is determined for each animal individually. 

The Observer 4.1, which was recently introduced, was also presented. The Observer is the ultimate tool for the collection, analysis and presentation of observational data, live or from video. It can also analyze data gathered with EthoVision. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to create the right experimental set-up. The new Workspace Explorer gives a clear overview of projects. In addition to this, advanced data sorting functions, unique qualitative and quantitative analysis functions (such as advanced reliability analysis and lag sequential analysis) and a new function to create video-highlights complete The Observer 4.1.  

Both the Event Logging Interface (ELI) as well as the Event Logging Keyboard (ELK) can be used perfectly with either EthoVision or The Observer. The ELI enables the interfacing with sensors, operant levers, beam break detectors, PIR (passive infrared) detectors etc. The ELK, with its ergonomic design, facilitates the often cumbersome scoring of on/off states.  

As a solution to track both mice with dark as well as light colored skin (e.g. as often encountered with transgenic mice), very convenient infrared-translucent mazes and open fields were presented. The infrared-translucent mazes also offer a solution for studying two-tone rodents e.g. Hooded Lister rats or guinea pigs. In addition, tracking problems caused by urine and other reflections will no longer occur. The infrared-translucent mazes and open fields will enable automatic tracking in situations in which tracking used to be very difficult or even impossible!  

Another tool that experienced its first commercial showing was Theme. Theme is an extremely powerful tool capable of detecting hidden patterns in behavior and interactions. Theme can be used in combination with data files generated by The Observer and EthoVision. It uses unique methods and algorithms to identify hidden relationships that cannot be detected by inspection or standard analytical methods. Various tools for the filtering and analysis of the patterns, on the basis of their behavioral content or quantitative criteria, are included as well. The pattern statistics and graphs can be copied to other programs, which is very useful when creating reports or other documents. 

The Society for Neuroscience’s 32nd annual meeting, from 2-7 November in Orlando, USA, attracted more than 25,000 attendees and was the second largest SfN meeting ever. A total of 13,343 papers were presented in 903 sessions. In total about 1300 exhibitors presented their latest products and developments in the area of neuroscience or related areas of expertise.  

Noldus Information Technology is the partner of choice for today’s behavioral neuroscientist and the behavioral researcher in general. Besides standard off-the-shelf software packages Noldus also offers complete turnkey solutions. The tools offered by Noldus are used worldwide at all the major pharmaceutical companies, leading academic research institutes as well as contract research laboratories and nutrition companies. Noldus currently employs over 60 highly educated professionals and is well known for its superb worldwide support and distributors network.