Place Avoidance (Active Allothetic)
Overview
The active place avoidance task measures spatial navigation, cognitive coordination, and conflict resolution by requiring an animal on a continuously rotating circular arena to avoid a stationary shock zone defined by room-frame (allothetic) cues. Because the arena rotates, the animal must actively navigate against the rotation to stay out of the shock zone — passive strategies (simply staying still) will carry the animal into the punished sector.
This task is uniquely demanding because it requires the animal to simultaneously process two spatial reference frames: the rotating arena frame and the stable room frame. The shock zone is fixed relative to room cues, so the animal must ignore arena-frame cues and continuously update its position using distal landmarks. This dual-frame cognitive coordination is hippocampus-dependent and sensitive to disruptions in synaptic plasticity, particularly NMDA receptor function.
ConductMaze integrates with the rotating arena hardware to track the animal's position in both reference frames using overhead video. The software defines the shock zone in room coordinates, triggers shock upon zone entry, and computes metrics including number of entrances, path efficiency, time to first entrance, and maximum avoidance time. Multi-session protocols support acquisition, reversal (shock zone relocation), and extinction phases.
Trial Flow
Arena Start
Place animal on rotating arena (1 RPM), tracking begins
Habituation
Optional habituation period (no shock) for baseline locomotion
Shock Zone Active
Shock zone enabled; animal must avoid defined sector
Zone Entry Check
Does animal enter shock zone (room-frame coordinates)?
Shock Delivery
Brief foot shock (0.2 mA, 0.5 s) upon entry, repeated if animal remains
Track Metrics
Log entrances, path, position in both reference frames
Session End
End after fixed duration (typically 20 min)
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena rotation speed | RPM | 1 | Arena rotation rate (typically 1 RPM) |
| Shock zone angle | degrees | 60 | Angular width of shock zone sector |
| Shock intensity | mA | 0.2 | Foot shock amplitude upon zone entry |
| Shock duration | seconds | 0.5 | Duration of each shock pulse |
| Inter-shock interval | seconds | 1.5 | Minimum time between repeated shocks if animal stays in zone |
| Session duration | minutes | 20 | Total duration of each avoidance session |
| Number of sessions | integer | 5 | Acquisition sessions (typically 1/day) |
Metrics
| Metric | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of entrances | count | Total entries into shock zone per session |
| Maximum avoidance time | seconds | Longest continuous period without zone entry |
| Time to first entrance | seconds | Latency from session start to first zone entry |
| Total shocks received | count | Number of shock pulses delivered per session |
| Path length | cm | Total distance traveled in room-frame coordinates |
| Linearity index | ratio | Straightness of avoidance paths (displacement/path length) |
| Time in opposite quadrant | seconds | Time spent in quadrant opposite to shock zone |
Sample Data
| Subject | Session | Entrances | Max Avoid Time (s) | Time to 1st (s) | Shocks | Path (cm) |
|---|
Representative data for illustration purposes. Actual values will vary by species, strain, and experimental conditions.
Applications
- 1Hippocampal function — uniquely sensitive to hippocampal lesions and synaptic plasticity disruption
- 2Cognitive coordination — dual reference frame processing is a higher-order spatial cognition test
- 3Schizophrenia models — NMDA receptor antagonists impair place avoidance before other spatial tasks
- 4Reversal learning — shock zone relocation measures cognitive flexibility and perseveration
- 5Epilepsy research — seizure models show place avoidance deficits correlating with cognitive comorbidities
Related Protocols
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