All rats used in the study have black stripes down their backs. All the mazes used are white in color. Each image taken by the camera is thresholded as a binary image, isolating the black of the rat from the white markings and the white mazes. The thresholded images can be tracked by the Labview program, which provides both a graph of the center of mass location, as well as specific additional calculations for each maze. The program saves the images as well as data files of the outputs according to maze type, rat number, and the test date. The images can be reviewed through a playback program, and the output graphs and data can be opened through another program such as Excel.

Figure 5 Greyscale image of water maze

Figure 6 Grayscale image after threshold

Figure 7 Plot of center of mass location in the plus maze

The calculations provided by the elevated plus maze program include a plot of the center of mass, as well as a record of the different rooms the rat entered with the corresponding duration of time spent in the room. The program also indicates if the rat is entering or leaving a section, as well as displays the speed with which it does so.

Figure 8 Plus maze rat location, direction, and velocity