Knowledge Base

Trial Control Settings

Choose Setup > Trial Control Settings > Default or White Light Routine. The template experiment contains two examples of trial control settings:

• Default - The default Trial Control Start-Stop rule. Use these settings to start and stop tracking manually.
• White Light Routine - Use these settings when you want to provide a light stimulus during the trial. Ten minutes after the start of the trial, the DanioVision white light immediately turns on to 100% intensity for 10 minutes, then the white light immediately turns off for 10 minutes. This sequence of actions is repeated twice, using a sub-rule, after which the trial stops.

Maximum Trial Duration (Recommended)

• If you record video: 60 minutes.
• Without recording video: 72 hours.

Set the duration of your trials in the Maximum Trial Duration pane or in the Start-Stop trial rule, by placing a Time condition immediately before the Stop track action box.

Create Your Own Trial Control Procedure

You can adjust these trial control settings to your own needs. The procedure below describes how to define Trial Control Settings from scratch.

For more information on Trial Control Settings:

• Trial Control in the EthoVision XT Help.
• The Reference Manual - Trial and Hardware Control in EthoVision XT, which you can find under Noldus > EthoVision XT 16 Other Documentation.

Controlling the DanioVision White Light

With the Trial Control Settings you can control the DanioVision White Light.

Example: After a 24-hour dark period in the DanioVision Observation Chamber, you want to expose your animals to alternating periods with the white light on and off, in which the light-on periods also vary in intensity.

To program this schedule:

1. To open the Trial Control, in the Experiment Explorer, right-click Trial Control Settings, select New, enter a name and click OK. The Trial Control screen opens with the default Start-Stop trial control rule.
2. Click the Condition Time box with "Infinite time" and press Delete.
3. In the Components pane, under Actions - Hardware, click the button in the Add column next to White Light Stimulus. Select Create a new action.
4. In the Hardware Action window, set the following:
   • Action name - Enter a description of the action, for example "Light on 100%".
   • Action to perform - Select Light on from the list.
   • Intensity level - Select the maximum intensity level of the light, in percentage (0-100%) or in Steps.
   • Fade duration - For example, with an Intensity level of 50% and a Fade duration of 2 seconds, the white light gradually turns on until 50% of its maximum intensity in 2 seconds time.
5. Click OK and insert the Action box in the sequence.
6. In the Components pane, under Conditions, click the button next to Time. Click Create a new action and click OK. In the Time condition window, you can set the following:
   • Condition name - For example, enter "Wait 15 mins".
   • Condition is met - For the option After a time of, enter "15 mins".
7. Click OK and insert the Condition box in the sequence.
8. Repeat steps 3-6 to complete the Trial Control rule:
   • Add a Hardware Action box with White Light - Off and a Condition Time box with "After 10 mins".
   • Add a Hardware Action box with White Light - On 50% and a Condition Time box with "After 10 mins".
   • Add a Hardware Action box with White Light - Off and a Condition Time box with "After 10 mins".
   • Add a Hardware Action box with White Light - On 100% and a Condition Time box with "After 15 mins".
9. Insert all the boxes in the correct order into the sequence and make sure you connect all boxes.

Tip: Combinations of Action and Condition boxes that are repeated in a sequence can be replaced with a sub-rule. This is especially handy when the entire sequence is repeated multiple times during a trial. For example: [White Light - On - 100%] > [After 10 min] > [White Light - Off] > [After 10 min]. For more information on using sub-rules, see the Reference Manual - Trial and Hardware Control in EthoVision XT.

Notes

• Click Test in the Hardware Action window to test the hardware action.
• Click Reset to reset all Hardware Action windows in your Trial Control procedure to their default values. For example, a White Light action is set to off by default; however, if you set the default White Light to on, then after clicking Reset the White Light switches on.
• To analyze data in the light or dark period, first create a Data Profile that specifies that period using Trial Control State, then calculate the statistics.

Use an External Command

If you want to use an external command, for instance to play a sound during the trial, the command is executed for each arena. For example, the command to play the sound is repeated 96 times for a 96-arena experiment. To prevent this from happening, put a condition before the External command box which will only become true for one of the arenas, for example Arena 1.

In the Arena Settings, create a zone in Arena 1 and call it "Zone 1A". Make the zone as large as the arena. In the Trial Control Settings, make a condition such as "Is subject in Zone A?", followed by the external command. Make sure that the sequence does not interfere with the rest of the Trial Control rule.

Source: DanioVision DVOC-0041 Reference Manual, Noldus Information Technology