Wageningen, 14 November 2007 – With a record-breaking number of persons visiting the booth, we look back at a highly successful annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Our prime location in the middle of the San Diego Convention Center was the place to be for neuroscientists searching for innovative solutions for their behavioral research.

 

At the onset of the five days conference, we were at the verge of releasing a new version of the premier video tracking system EthoVision XT. This release, which allows new parameters to be measured and with a simpler and more user-friendly set-up process, was received with great enthusiasm by many Neuroscience 2007 visitors. Ruud Tegelenbosch, product manager of EthoVision, states: "Visitors were very positive about the release of EthoVision XT R2. The new and improved features, including the new detection method and parameters such as ‘head direction to zone’ were very well received. EthoVision XT is considered the world standard in video tracking by many of the visitors."

EthoVision XT R2 was not the only magnet attracting people to visit the Noldus booth; the full hardware set-ups of PhenoTyper and CatWalk were available for demonstration as well. Visitors were given the opportunity to get a touch and feel of the three new add-ons for PhenoTyper, the video-based observation system to assess rodent behavior in an interactive home cage environment. The pellet dispenser and lick-o-meter increase the accuracy of measuring food and water intake and the illuminated shelter further stimulates environmental interactivity. The newest version of CatWalk, the video-based analysis system to assess locomotor deficits and pain-induced gait adaptations in rat and mice, contains a number of improvements resulting in a more user-friendly research tool.

Each year, we organize a very popular satellite symposium and this year was no exception. This year’s edition, led by Prof. Robert Gerlai (University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada), was attended by approximately eighty visitors. Three renowned speakers (Jonathan Best, Elissa Chesler, and Laurence Tecott) presented their views of automated high throughput behavioral screening of rodents and zebrafish. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion on challenges and perspectives.

Neuroscience 2007 was the ultimate opportunity to present an award to the one-thousandth registered user of EthoVision. Dr. K. Karlsson, assistant professor of the School of Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University, Iceland, proudly accepted a voucher for one free registration for Measuring Behavior 2008 and a 250 euro grant.

Thanks to the high number of enthusiastic visitors and interesting new products on display, Neuroscience 2007 can be considered an overwhelming success by all.