Did the moving of rat on the edges of the closed arm of the elevated plus maze measured as close or open time?
in our observation, some rats moved on the edges of the closed arm of the elevated plus maze and i don't know how can i evaluate such move
I have not used this maze, but i have seen protocols where animals start in the open arm and latency to go into the closed arm is evaluated. So, as soon as the complete body of the animal enters into the closed-arm you stop the clock. Perhaps you can modify a little bit your method in order to reduce the uncertainty. I know i did not answer your Q, sorry :(
A very typical elevated plus maze protocol involves placing the animal in the center of the apparatus, facing one of the two closed arms. Then the researcher can evaluate several measures: time to enter the open arms, time spent in open vs closed arms, and percentage of total time spent in open vs closed arms. This is most easily done by placing a video camera directly above the apparatus such that the videos can be scored using either a tracking software like Ethovision (from Noldus) or freeware such as Clickr. In general, when the edges are taken into consideration separately, it is usually concerning the open arms: did the animal spend its open arm time more on the edges or more towards the center of the apparatus. I don't recall many protocols that examine time spent in the edges of closed arms. But, if this is something you are particularly interested in, then during your scoring, you can divide up the arms into zones of interest (pick an objective measurement, such as the last 10cm of each arm is considered the edge) and see how much time the animal spends in those zones. I hope this answers your question.
Thanks Fiona and Bruno
I want to clarify my question more
Rat jump on the upper edge of the closed arm and stay on it or move above ..This portion exposed one...I want to know if I calculate it as open arm or close?
Hi,
You're very welcome. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Normally, the animal should not be able to jump out of the closed arms. If they're in the closed arms, it counts as the closed arms. If they are escaping the apparatus via the closed arms, then there is a problem with your plus maze.
Hi,
A standard plus maze apparatus consists of four arms (two open without walls and two enclosed by 30 cm high walls) 50 cm long and 10 cm wide. Check your enclosed wall height - whether it is 30 cm or less. If it is 30 cm or
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