I am currently setting up our lab's behavioral space to run the open field test in rats, and I am trying to figure out how to set up lighting to evenly illuminate the open field chamber (a 90 cm x 90 cm box).
For now, I have hung two light fixtures (like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T6Y5T7H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) from the ceiling and positioned the light fixtures so the light reflects off the ceiling and into the chamber, but there are still shadows on the floor of the chamber, and the light intensity appears low. I would like to know 1) how other people set up their lighting and 2) the light intensity (in lux) in the open field chamber, if possible.
Thank you all in advance!
Hi Michelle,
In my lab we leave the main (dimmable) lights of the behaviour room switched on such that the entire room is evenly illuminated. Therefore shadows have never been a particularly pressing issue! Your current set up with the reading lights may be resulting in shadows due to the ‘spotlight’ nature of these lights. I’m curious to see if you could point the lamps towards the open field box (instead of reflecting off the ceiling) and through a translucent white sheet of plastic to diffuse the light. This should lead to more even distribution of light over the test area.
In my experience, rodents tend to be more exploratory in dimmer light, so we use usually use 50 to 100 lux when studying general movement (if you are using AnyMaze, consider increasing the camera exposure such that the rats can be tracked accurately by the video system). If you want to focus on studying anxiety on the other hand, more intense light would be better suited for teasing out any phenotypic differences. Perhaps 200-300 lux. However, as with all things behaviour related, its best to perform some validation rounds first to fine tune everything!
Hope this helps a little, cheers!
Hi
To do this, you need to model the entire interior.
Now you need to measure the brightness of the model using software like Ecotech.
Now you can figure out how much light is enough for your environment.
Thanks
Hello @Michelle Kim, my suggestion is to define the most suitable lighting condition (eg lumens, light type -white, yellow, red-, no light) for your experiment, given its experimental purpose, its subject matter, the natural and expected behaviour of your experimental subjects, your data recording system, and then figure out how to adjust your experimental arrangement to these relevant aspects to your study. In any case, a dimmer will be very useful. In this experiment, we used 2 yellow lights of 3 watts, dimmed below 210 lumens.
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