Shuttle Boxes

Presentation

BIOSEB Shuttle Boxes LE916 (Rats) and LE918 (Mice) provide the ideal environment to carry out conditioned reflexes (Active and Passive Avoidance) in learning and memory studies.


Operating principle

Basically, the BIOSEB Shuttle box (LE916-918) consists in two equally sized compartments with two independent grid floors.
A frontal door, in addition to the top ones, allows an easy access inside the box. The cage contains a general sound generator and a visual stimulus (light) for each compartment.

The Animal is detected by two Weight Transducers located above the static grids, avoiding the problems inherent to photoelectrical or grid tilting systems (high speeds of displacements in mice, tail detection in rats).

BIOSEB Shuttle box is thought to be easily set up and dismantled. Therefore, reconverting it to traditional Passive Box is quite straightforward by adding a sliding door (LE916D for mice or LE918D for rats). Furthermore, it is possible to set up different wall shapes or colours in order to further condition the subject of study either visually or spatially.

The shuttle boxes can be controlled by Programmer LE2708 or SHUTAVOID software. SEDACOM software can be used to transfer data from the programmer to a PC through a RS232 port.
It is not necessary the interface neither the use of board installed into the PC. The link is carried out by one only cable from one Box to the other. The first Box is connected to PC or Laptop by the port RS 232 or USB.The second option is suitable for controlling a number of boxes simultaneously.


PC connection scheme


Parameters Measured

• Latency to entrance into the black compartment (passive avoidance)
• Number and latency of conditioned responses (active avoidance)
• Number and latency of unconditioned responses (active avoidance)
• Number and latency of null responses (active avoidance)
• Number and latency of none responses (active avoidance)
• Number of compartment changes during the intertrial intervals (active avoidance)
• Latency mean and accumulated responses sorted by interval of time


Key features

• Highly sensitive weight transducer system for accurate animal detection
• Easy to set up different wall shapes and colours
• Optional guillotine door
• Compartments with independent grid floor
• Frontal and top doors for an easy access inside the box
• Up to 8 Active Boxes can be controlled at once from a PC
• Neither PC interface nor PC cards are required
• Safety System which guarantees that the shock intensity received by the animal is always the same value independently of the grid bars treaded