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ANY-maze help and support centre > The ANY-maze reference > The principal pages of ANY-maze > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Apparatus > Apparatus measures
Apparatus measures
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ANY-maze will score the following measures for the apparatus as a whole:
Test duration
| Description | Reports the duration of a test. |
| Calculation method | The value of the test clock when the test ended. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell inside the period. This will be the full duration of the period for all periods except the last one in the test. This result is most useful in calculations. |
Total distance travelled
| Description | Reports the total distance that the animal travelled during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sum of the distance between each point in the track - see note below. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the distance that the animal travelled during the period. |
| Notes | In some situations tracks can have small oscillations in them which tend to generate unrepresentatively large values for distance travelled. This occurs most often when an animal travels slowly while moving its body a lot - for example, while exploring an open field. To overcome this ANY-maze uses an adaptive smoothing algorithm to attenuate these oscillations when calculating distance travelled - see figure 1. Note: The definition of what's a small oscillation is based on the animal's size. |
Figure 1. Measuring the length of the actual track (shown in orange) would yield an unrepresentatively large value for distance travelled. ANY-maze uses a "smoothed" track (shown in green) to better estimate the true distance travelled. [Note: The oscillations in this track have been exaggerated to aid explanation.]
Overall average speed
| Description | Reports the average speed of the animal during a test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result for a period is the Total distance travelled during the period divided by the Test duration for the period. Note: The "Test duration" for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
| Notes | If you want to know average speed while mobile (i.e. ignoring periods when the animal was stationary) then use a calculation of "Total distance travelled / Total time mobile". |
First zone entered
| Description | Reports the name of the first zone that the animal entered during the test. |
| Calculation method | Simply reflects the first zone entry. This is affected by the "Don't score any results in this zone until the first 'true' entry" option on the Zone entry settings page. See Choosing how ANY-maze should detect entries into a zone for more details. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
| Notes | When analysed this value will be treated as a nominal value - see statistical tests included in ANY-maze. |
In some circumstances it's possible that two or more zones could be the 'first zone entered'. For example, if you create a protocol in which a single area of the apparatus is included in two zones then, if the animal enters this area first, it will have entered both zones at the same time - meaning there are two 'first zones entered'. In this situation ANY-maze will report the 'first zone entered' as being the first one of the zones in the zone list shown in the protocol tree.
Total time mobile
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was mobile during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the Test duration of the period minus Total time immobile during the period. Note: The "Test duration" for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
Total time immobile
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was immobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each immobile episode in the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the sum of the duration of each immobile episode in the period. |
Episodes of immobility which start or end outside the period are calculated as if they started or ended at the start or end of the period, respectively. This means that it is possible to have a result for Total immobile episodes in the period which is zero and a result for Total time immobile in the period which is not zero. For example, if the animal is immobile at the start of a period and remains immobile throughout the period then the Total time immobile in the period will be the period's duration but the Total immobile episodes in the period will be zero because no transition from a mobile state to an immobile state occurred during the period.
Total mobile episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was mobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an immobile state to a mobile state during the test. For the purposes of this calculation the animal is assumed to be immobile at the start of the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the count of the number of transitions from an immobile state to a mobile state during the period. |
Total immobile episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was immobile during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from a mobile state to an immobile state during the test. For the purposes of this calculation the animal is assumed to be mobile at the start of the test. The definition of immobility depends on the current tracking options - see Detecting immobility. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the count of the number of transitions from a mobile state to an immobile state during the period. |
Total time active
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was active during the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the Test duration of the period minus Total time inactive during the period. Note: The "Test duration" for a period is the amount of the test duration which fell in the period - this is the period's duration for all periods except the last one in the test. |
Total time inactive
| Description | Reports the amount of time the animal was inactive during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each inactive episode in the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is sum of the inactive episodes in the period. |
Episodes of inactivity which start or end outside the period are calculated as if they started or ended at the start or end of the period, respectively. This means that it is possible to have a result for Total inactive episodes in the period which is zero and a result for Total time inactive in the period which is not zero. For example, if the animal is inactive at the start of a period and remains inactive throughout the period then the Total time inactive in the period will be the period's duration but the Total inactive episodes in the period will be zero because no transition from an active state to an inactive state occurred during the period.
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Total active episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was active during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an inactive to an active state. For the purposes of this calculation the animal is assumed to be inactive at the start of the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the number of transitions from an inactive to an active state that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Total inactive episodes
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal was inactive during the test. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of transitions from an active to an inactive state. For the purposes of this calculation the animal is assumed to be active at the start of the test. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the number of transitions from an active to an inactive state that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Longest active episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest continuous period of activity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of activity is calculated when the episode ends. The longest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the longest episode of activity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Shortest active episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest continuous period of activity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of activity is calculated when the episode ends. The shortest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the shortest episode of activity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Longest inactive episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest continuous period of inactivity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of inactivity is calculated when the episode ends. The longest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the longest episode of inactivity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Shortest inactive episode
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest continuous period of inactivity during the test. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each episode of inactivity is calculated when the episode ends. The shortest one is found. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. For any time period the result is the shortest episode of inactivity that occurred during the period. |
| Notes | Inactivity is defined as NOT activity. An animal is defined to be active if it is either mobile OR it's performing some other behaviour which has been specified as an activity - for example, grooming. If the tracking options specify that mobility should not be detected then activity analysis will be based purely on the performance of other behaviours. |
Number of line crossings
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal's centre point moved from one area of the apparatus map to another - i.e. crossed the lines which constitute the map. |
| Calculation method | The apparatus is divided into unique areas by the apparatus map. For each animal position recorded in the experiment the area which contains the animal's centre point is found. Each time this changes the measure's value if increased by 1. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure DOES NOT count transitions between ZONES. It counts transitions between areas of the apparatus map, irrespective of whether the areas are part of a zone. This measure is primarily intended to provide an easy way to measure 'grid line crossings' in a similar way to that commonly used manually - viz: A regular grid is drawn on the apparatus and the experimenter counts the number of times the animal moves from one grid square to another. It's important to understand that ANY-maze uses the animal's centre point when calculating the measure and therefore it can be prone to 'spurious entries' if an animal straddles a line between two areas (i.e. by moving a very small amount the animal can apparently cross a line many times). This problem can be overcome by setting one zone for each area, using the percentage of the animal that's in the zone to score zone entries and then summing all the entries into these zones. |
Absolute turn angle
| Description | Reports the sum of the absolute angle between each movement vector of the animal. |
| Calculation method | A vector of movement from one position of the animal's centre point to the next is created. For each vector the angle between it and the previous vector is calculated with anti-clockwise movement being negative and clockwise movement being positive (i.e. the angle is from -180° to 180°). The absolute value of this angle is summed for all the positions of the animal throughout the test or time period. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. The result is the based on just those positions within the specific time period. |
| Notes | From this measure it is easy to use calculations to derive measures such as Meander and Angular velocity. The former is the Absolute turn angle divided by the Total distance travelled and the latter is the Absolute turn angle divided by the Test duration. |
Total distance travelled by the animal's head
| Description | Reports the total distance that the animal's head travelled during the test. |
| Calculation method | Sum of the distance between each point in the head track. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | As for the Total distance travelled ANY-maze will smooth the animal's head track to remove small oscillations which would otherwise distort the result of this measure. |
Number of rears
| Description | Reports the number of times the animal reared. |
| Calculation method | Counts the number of times the animal started to rear. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Total time rearing
| Description | Reports the total amount of time for which the animal was rearing. |
| Calculation method | Sums the duration of each bout of rearing that occurred during the test. If the animal was rearing at the test end then the last bout of rearing ends with the test end. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Latency to first rear
| Description | Reports the latency to the first time that the animal reared. |
| Calculation method | The time when the first bout of rearing started. |
| Analysis across time | This measure cannot be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Average duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the average duration of the rearing bouts. |
| Analysis across time | This measure can be analysed across time. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Maximum duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the duration of the longest bout of rearing. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each bout of rearing is calculated and the longest bout is found. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
Minimum duration of a rear
| Description | Reports the duration of the shortest bout of rearing. |
| Calculation method | The duration of each bout of rearing is calculated and the shortest bout is found. |
| Notes | This measure is only available if the apparatus is being viewed from the side. ANY-maze actually detects rearing by analysing the shape of the animal and therefore this measure will only work reliably if there is good contrast between the animal and the background of the apparatus. |
See also
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ANY-maze help topic H0113
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