NEU-08-CON Conducta

Conducta allows the investigation of the behavioral and activity patterns of small laboratory animals. Conducta is a device to record motor activity of laboratory rodents. Its innovative feature is that it detects movements by high-density arrays of infrared diodes that give a very fine spatial resolution. This device is a suitable for studying motor patterns, spatial movement distributions, special movements (e.g. jumping), etc. in 3 dimensions with considerable resolution. Variables recorded by the Conducta are ambulation (walking, running), local movements, rearing, jumping and immobility. The program records the number and total time of each variable and calculates the mean time of each element too. For ambulation the mean velocity is also calculated. In addition, length and number of the ‘rushes’ are automatically calculated.

As an opinion, an electrical stimulation device can be added (for extra cost) by which foot- shocks can be delivered through a metal grid. This way behavioral changes evoked by the shock could be directly and automatically recorded. Short- and long-term consequences of a shock can be tracked, stimulus thresholds can be determined, learned helplessness, place-preference and place-avoidance can be studied. This extended device is also suitable to study changes of pain-threshold and pain-tolerance.
Optional infrared camera with picture processing computer system for continuous monitoring and recording of animal activity is available.

This program is fully compatible with the Windows 9X/XP operating systems and fully utilizes their features. Recorded data can be exported to other analyzing and data processing programs (e.g. MS Excel, Origin, Prism).

The Conducta software can perfectly handle 1 to 8 boxes simultaneously. All parameters and variables are set on screen from software within wide range and flexibly. A special feature of the software is the graphical tracing of the movement of each animal in parallel windows; two of them can be zoomed out simultaneously. Based on the recorded data, it is possible to export data in this graphical form. The experimenter can follow the elapsed time on the screen, too.

DETAILED INFORMATION (PDF)

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