Knowledge Base

Trial and Arena Status

• Waiting. An arena gets the status Waiting when you have started the trial but acquisition did not yet start because you defined a Trial Control profile with a Start recording rule and the starting condition is not yet met.
• Acquiring. An arena gets the status Acquiring when acquisition is ongoing.
• Acquired. An arena gets the status Acquired when data has been acquired for that arena.

System Variables

Arena Name

The name of the arena in which the animal was tracked.

Arena Settings

The name of the Arena Settings used to acquire your tracks.

Detection Settings

The name of the Detection Settings used to acquire your tracks.

Interpolated Samples

The proportion of samples that were interpolated during the trial, expressed in percentage. Interpolation occurs when the camera fails to send the video frames at the expected time. For details, see Detection Settings: Advanced Setup > Dropped Frames Correction.

Missed Samples

The proportion of missed samples, expressed in percentage. EthoVision misses samples if the processor load is too high or the camera delivers fewer video frames than expected.

Recording After

The length of the interval between the start of the trial and the start of acquisition. This variable has the value 0 unless you defined a condition between the Start Trial box and the Start Track box in the Start-Stop Trial rule in the Trial Control settings.

Recording Duration

The length of the interval from start of acquisition till stop of acquisition. Recording duration is equal to Trial Duration unless you defined a condition between the Start Trial box and the Start Track box in the Start-Stop Trial rule in the Trial Control settings.

Start Time

The date and time of the start of the trial.

Subject Name

The name of the subject that the track refers to. Subject names are specified in the Experiment Settings.

Subject Not Found

Proportion of time the subject was not found. If the subject is not found, it means EthoVision processed the sample but did not find anything matching the current Detection Settings. Therefore, this system variable is a measure of the quality of detection.

Sync Status

The status of the sync-out file. When no external data co-acquisition has been carried out for a specific trial, the status is Planned. As soon as co-acquisition is started on the DAQ system, the status becomes Acquired.

Track

The name of the track file.

Tracking Source

The video input on the encoder board connected to the camera. If you use a digital camera, this is the name of the camera. The cell is empty when you track from a video file.

Trial Control Settings

The name of the Trial Control profile used during tracking.

Trial Duration

The length of the interval from start of the trial until the stop of the trial.

Trial Name

By default, Trial 1, Trial 2, etc. To change a trial name, double-click it and enter a new name.

Video File

The name and location of the video file that was used or will be used for acquisition.

Video Start Time

The date and time the video file that you used for tracking was created.

System Variable Format

For the time stamp variables (Start Time and Video Start Time) and duration variables (Recording After, Recording Duration, and Trial Duration) you can specify the format. Double-click in the Format field. In the Format String window, enter your preferred format in the field at the top and click OK.

For the other system variables Label, Description, Type, Predefined Values, and Scope you cannot change their format.

Preparing the List of Trials

• Plan your trials
• Edit the Trial List
• Skip trials
• Clear trials in the Trial List
• Prepare the trial list for batch acquisition
• Import data from other experiments (use this option when you want to merge data from multiple identical experiments)

Plan Your Trials

Aim

• To prepare the list of experimental trials in detail and in advance, so that fewer actions have to be taken during their execution.
• Planning trials in the Trial List also allows you to run a batch acquisition. Select video files for all the trials in your trial list. For each trial you can optionally select separate Arena Settings, Trial Control Settings, and Detection Settings. Then you can automatically acquire all trials.

If you do not predefine a trial list, it is built up automatically as you acquire new trials.

Example: Define the independent variables ID and Dose and fill in the list of trials with the ID of the subjects to be tested, and the drug amount planned for each trial. When you start data acquisition, EthoVision XT informs you that for Trial 1 you need to prepare subject A21034 which has to be injected with 1.0 mg/kg apomorphine.

To Define the List of Trials

1. Choose Setup > Trial List, or in the Experiment Explorer click Trial List.
2. To add trials, do one of the following:
   • If you track live or from videos, click the Add Trials button on the toolbar, then enter the number of new trials you want to add.
   • If you track from videos, you can add trials automatically based on the video files you select. Each video will be associated with one trial. Click the Add Videos button on the toolbar and select your videos. See also Automatically Add Video Files to the Trial List.
3. A number of rows appear in the lower half of the Trial List. Each row represents a trial, that is, an acquisition session to be carried out in one or more arenas. If your setup is made of multiple arenas, each trial is divided into multiple rows, each one representing a track, that is, data of one individual subject tracked in a single trial.
4. For each trial, enter the value of the independent variables in the corresponding cells, when required.
5. For each trial, select the Arena Settings, the Trial Control Settings, and the Detection Settings you want to use.

Notes

• If you do not see the columns Arena Settings, Trial Control Settings, and Detection Settings, click the Show/Hide button on the toolbar, select Variables, and under System select the items you want to view.
• You can also edit the Trial List before, during, or after acquisition. See Edit the Trial List.
• If trials are already present in the table, the trials you add are appended.