Wageningen, 11 January 2005 - EthoVision made its star appearance in a Dutch TV science show. During the TV show, the two singing sisters of popular Dutch music group 'Lois Lane' performed a version of the Morris water maze applicable to humans. The Morris water maze is normally used to assess spatial memory in rodents. Instead of locating a platform hidden just below the water’s surface (the objective of the water maze), the sisters were expected to locate a double bed in a bedroom imitation while blindfolded.

 

Whereas one of the sisters had the chance to memorize the location of the double bed in advance, her sister had to perform the test with no knowledge of the arrangement of the bedroom imitation whatsoever. By wearing a stylish bow on top of their heads, EthoVision registered the locomotion of the sisters by means of a camera placed above the bedroom imitation.

 

Not surprisingly, the sister that was kept in the dark had relatively more difficulty finding the location of the double bed. The difference in performance between the sisters was visualized with EthoVision and turned out to be very apparent indeed.

 

Discussing the results on the double bed.