T-Maze Spontaneous Alternation

The T-maze spontaneous alternation task exploits the innate tendency of rodents to explore novel environments by measuring their propensity to alternate arm choices across successive trials. Spatial working memory is assessed by the animal's ability to remember which arm was previously visited and choose the opposite arm on the subsequent trial. This paradigm is sensitive to hippocampal lesions, pharmacological manipulations targeting cholinergic and glutamatergic systems, and transgenic models of Alzheimer's disease.

Primary dependent variables include the percentage of spontaneous alternation (ratio of alternating choices to total possible alternations), arm entry latency, total number of arm entries, and time spent in each arm. Additional measures such as return latency (time between consecutive arm entries) and perseverative errors (repeated entries into the same arm) provide further insight into spatial working memory integrity and behavioral flexibility.

ConductMaze automates T-maze alternation testing with infrared beam-break arrays at arm entrances and choice points, enabling real-time detection of arm entries without manual observation. The system controls guillotine door actuators to manage forced-choice and free-choice phases, logs all spatial coordinates and timestamps, and computes alternation scores, latencies, and error types automatically. Session parameters including inter-trial interval, number of trials, and door timing are fully programmable.