Knowledge Base

Analyze Data - Dependent Variables

• Velocity – Distance traveled per unit of time.
• Distance Moved – Distance from previous to current sample.
• In Zone – 'in zone' or 'not in zone' state.
• Acceleration – Rate of change of velocity.
• Acceleration State – 'accelerating', 'decelerating', or 'constant speed'.
• Distance to Zone – Shortest distance to zone border.
• Distance to Point – Shortest distance to point of interest.
• Zone Transitions – Times animal moves between sequence of zones.
• Zone Alternations – Consecutive zone visits (Y-maze).
• Target Visits and Errors – Successes and errors in mazes.
• Heading to Point – Movement direction relative to a point.
• Heading – Movement direction relative to x-axis.
• Turn Angle – Change in moving direction (relative/absolute).
• Angular Velocity – Change in direction per unit of time.
• Meander – Direction change relative to distance (tortuosity).
• Movement – 'moving' or 'not moving' state.
• Mobility State – 'highly mobile', 'mobile', 'immobile'.
• Mobility – Surface area change of detected animal.
• Rotation – Clockwise/counter-clockwise rotations.

Standard Available Output Variables

• Activity State – Four levels of activity duration.
• Activity – Percentage of activity in arena.
• Manually Scored Events – Behaviors scored manually.
• Free Interval – Custom interval duration analysis.

Multiple Body Points

• Head Direction – Angle nose point is pointing towards.
• Body Elongation State – 'stretched', 'normal', 'contracted'.
• Body Elongation – Elongation percentage per interval.
• Head Directed to Zone – Duration head is directed to zone.
• Body Angle State – 'Straight', 'Bent', 'Bent clockwise', 'Bent counterclockwise'.
• Body Angle – Body angle per sample point.

Social Interaction

• Distance Between Subjects – Distance between body points of different animals.
• Body Contact – Contact between bodies (whole detected area).
• Proximity – 'in proximity' or 'not in proximity' state.
• Relative Movement – 'moving to', 'moving from', 'no relative movement', 'no interaction'.
• Net Weighted Movement – Signed, distance-weighted change in distance.
• Weighted Movement From/To – Distance-weighted change when moving away from/toward.
• Social Contact [NEW] – Nose point near conspecific with orientation toward receiver.
• Approach [NEW] – Actor moves toward receiver within specified parameters.
• Following [NEW] – Actor follows receiver with both moving.
• Leaving [NEW] – Actor moves away from receiver.
• Side by Side – Two animals positioned parallel.
• Train – One animal follows directly behind another.

Trial and Hardware Control

• Trial Control State – Time interval specified by Trial & Hardware Control events.
• Trial Control Variable – Variables defined in Trial Control Settings.
• Trial Control Event – Point event from Trial & Hardware Control.
• Hardware Variables – Commands and signals from external devices.

Multi-Condition Variables

You can create new, customized parameters by combining two or more of the ones mentioned above, including manually or automatically scored events, hardware events, and external data. Other custom-built parameters are available upon request.

Javascript Variables

You can create custom dependent variables with JavaScript code. With JavaScript you have an almost endless range of possibilities to extract information from your track.

JavaScript variables can be of type continuous, event, or state. You can find JavaScript variables ready to use on the EthoVision 19 Installation package and they are also available on GitHub: https://github.com/noldus/EthoVision-JavaScriptCustomAnalysis

Statistics Available

Depending on the parameter, the following statistics are available:

• Frequency
• Latency to first occurrence
• Latency to last occurrence
• Total duration
• Variance
• Standard deviation
• Standard error
• Number
• Mean
• Maximum
• Minimum
• Number of samples used to calculate the statistic

Group statistics available:

• Group mean and standard deviation
• Group mean and standard error
• 5-number summary (Minimum, First Quartile, Median, Third Quartile, Maximum)

For grouped statistics, charts are automatically created. By default, this is a bar chart. When time bins are used, a line chart is created. When specifying a 5-number summary, a box-whiskers chart is created. Charts can also be exported as image files.

Output and Export Data

Track data, values of dependent variables, and all statistics can be exported as *.xls or *.txt file:

• Export Track Data and Dependent Variable Values – Export the X,Y coordinates together with the value of the parameters chosen. Each track is exported as a separate file and the arena name and track number are attached.
• Export Statistics – Export the spreadsheet-like table with all statistic results. The layout can be customized.
• Export Hardware Log – If you are using Trial & Hardware Control, you can export the hardware log file.
• Export Manual Scoring Log – If you have manually scored events, these can be exported as raw data.
• Export Trial Control Log – The instructions of Trial Control and when the events occurred.
• Export the External Data Log – Original data from external sources.

Arena definition, graphs and heatmaps can be exported as *.jpg, *.png, *.bmp, and *.gif. The heatmaps can be exported in a high resolution (up to 3072 × 2304 px), making it suitable for publications.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (Premium package) offers three tools to safeguard your experiment:

• The ability to set user management rights
• An Application Log that logs: Start and stop of trial, Creation of new experiment, Start/Stop of an experiment, Restoration of an experiment
• An Experiment Log that contains: Snapshots of and changes made in the experiment settings, detection settings, and arena settings; Date and time a trial started and ended; Values of independent variables; Hyperlinks to earlier logged settings; Comments made by the user; Snapshot of data selection and analysis profile

Both the application log and experiment log can be exported and printed.

Help Features

• Browser Based (HTML) Help – Highly searchable and responsive Help, can also be opened on tablets.
• Video Tutorials – EthoVision incorporates mini video tutorials in certain parts of the software. A complete tutorial is available via the Help menu.
• Help Desk – Professional personal help, available in many different time zones via phone, Teams or e-mail.
• Sample Experiments – Provided with the software. More are available at my.noldus.com.

Hardware Components

Minimum Set-Up

• EthoVision Base software
• Camera (e.g. GigE, USB3, Basler, Analog)
• Computer

Optional Components

• DanioVision
• DanioVision Temperature Control Unit
• Various mazes and tanks
• Backlight unit
• Camera table
• DAQ system
• MediaRecorder (for high resolution recordings)
• USB-IO-box

Source: EthoVision XT 19 Technical Specifications - Fish, Noldus Information Technology