Automated analysis for a Spontaneous Alternations Task for mice. When finished, this script should include data post processing and individual/group analysis for the experiment.
Spontaneous Alternation Task
Behavioral experiment to test short-term memory which takes advantage of the innate exploratory behavior of mice. In short, we use a three-arm Y-maze and record the entries and alternations to the different arms. The arms would be labelled A-B-C.
Entries: All 4 limbs of a mouse are within an arm; Alternations: Consecutive entries into all three arms (Figure below);
To calculate the alternations percentage, we should use the following formula:
%alternations = 100 x (nº of alterations / total nº of arm entries)
A high %alternations should indicate a good short-term memory while a low %alternations suggests a poor short-term memory.