These days I read in some article about behavior asymmetry coefficient that is calculated from parameters of open field test. However I didn't downloaded that paper. Now I can't find anything about that subject.
Could you be referring to a paper which I can't find right now that normalised inner zone activity to distance traveled? Will see if I can find it :)
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vz360gc#page-1
http://www.pnas.org/content/78/3/1958.full.pdf
I've found a few talking about behavioural asymmetry in terms of body position and movement preferences for left/right e.g. tail posture.
How are you analysing your open field data? I know that Ethovision can calculate turn angles and head direction etc if this is what you mean...
By plain method of looking at animal from distance (squares crossed, rearings, passing through center) while it is in open filed box :)
We cant afford special equipment and programs for anlysis for now :)
I copied the sentence from that paper and it goes like this:
The behavior asymmetry coefficient was calculated as the ratio of the number of horizontal movements to the total locomotor activity.
But i need more to read and to look in order to understand it better...
Ok - that sounds like what I first mentioned - still having trouble finding the paper but what they did was divide the frequency of entry to the inner zone by the total distance travelled. In your case, I suppose it would be:
Inner zone line crossings / total line crossings
I've yet to apply this to my own data so not really sure how useful it is. I have looked at correlations between distance, duration and frequency of visits to the inner zone, and rearing behaviour. As you can imagine, frequency and duration are strongly correlated, with some correlations between distance and frequency, and little with rearing, which seems more of an exploratory behaviour compared to the risk assessment/thigmotaxis of inner zone activity.
Well thanks i understand i guess :) So i should do this:
number of rearing/total line crossings?
in my case animals very rear cross through middle of OF apparatus, even diazepam treated!
I will apply it to some of results i have and will see what will happen :)
thanks!
Out of interest, what lighting levels are you using? The lower the better if you want to see a difference in centre activity :)
This model uses coefficients of variation (CV) as a measurment for spatial and temporal asymmetry in exploration levels (Initial activity vs activity after habituation; center vs periphery exploration). The relevant paper is attached
In OF test we are not using any lightning! Only room light, but the experiments are done in the morning or early afternoon....
Nikola, it might help get consistent results if you can borrow a lux meter and see how strong the lighting is when you do the test - I use around 12lux, which is quite dim, but anywhere between 6-40lux is good for seeing differences in inner zone activity
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