The place preference cage is composed of two 30 x 30 cm compartments, one white and the other black, linked by a 10 x 8 cm grey ( or transparent) compartment.
The control unit is connected to a PC by an interface card provided with the cage.
For constant monitoring of the animal location, the floor of the black and the white part is equipped with sensitive strain gauged based transducers. They detect the animal by continuously measuring its weight.

The data send by the transducers are analysed by a software named PPC working under Windows. The results calculated by the software are :

• Total number of entries in each zone,
• Average number of entries per minute,
• Total time spent in each zone
• Average time spent in each zone by entry.

An history file is also generated including the details of the entries in each zone with the respective time spent for each entry.
To ease the use of the cage, the floor of each compartment is removable for cleaning.
On request colour, texture and volumes can be changed.