ACTIVITY MONITOR - Vanderbilt Kennedy Center

MED ASSOCIATES INC. ACTIVITY MONITOR
It is recommended that the preset analysis settings be used, however, the Rotational
Analysis Setup window has three display windows (Figure 4-8 - Figure 4-10) for userdefined
rotational analysis configurations. The top left window displays the quadrant and
maximum radius information in such a way as to allow the user to view and understand
what changes with the quadrant and maximum radius do to the analysis. As the
numbers in the setup boxes change, the corresponding display window changes
accordingly. The top right window displays, in a pie chart, the number of Segments,
single pie slices that allow the user to set "degrees of freedom" for the Forward Limit
(red pie slices) and Reverse Limit (green pie slices). These settings tell the software how
far a subject must move in order to start looking for a rotation and how far a subject
may back track and not start logging a rotation in the opposite direction. This
"tolerance" has enabled us to get very reproducible results.
The following information is required to run Rotational Analysis:
Table 4-4 - Rotational Analysis Continued
Item Description
X Number Of Quadrants Divides the chamber into the specified number of X quadrants.
If the number of X and Y quadrants to 3 is set to 3, then the picture in the left hand
window will look like a Tic-Tac-Toe board and four intersections will have been
created. Each intersection will have a circle created around it. The size of the circle
is determined by the Radius (see below).
Y Number Of Quadrants Divides the chamber into the specified number of Y quadrants.
Radius
(number of photo beams)
Determines the size of the circle around each intersection. The animal must stay
within the circle for the entire rotation or it will not count. Therefore small radiuses
will catch only small rotations and large radiuses will catch larger rotations.
Segments Determines how many pie slices to divide each circle into.
Forward Limit The Forward limit determines how many pie slices forward the animal can move in
one tick (usually 50ms). It is designed to help detect if the animal is crossing
through the center of the circle.
: Segments is set to 8 and Forward Limit is set to 4. If the animal starts in pie slice 1,
it can safely move to pie slices 2, 3, 4 (clockwise rotation) or 8, 7, 6
(counterclockwise rotation) and still be considered in a rotation. If the animal moves
through the center of the circle to pie slice 5, then it will no longer be considered a
rotation.
Reverse Limit Determines how many pie slices the animal can move in the reverse direction in one
tick (usually 50ms) before the software starts to look for a circle in the opposite
direction. It also helps detect if the animal crossed the center in the opposite
direction.
: Segments is set to 8 and Reverse Limit is set to 4. If the animal starts in pie slice 1
and then goes into pie slice 2, then the animal can safely to into pie slices 1, 8, and
7 in the reverse direction before the rotation is thrown out and a new one is started
in the opposite direction. If the animal goes through the center of the circle into pie
slice 6, then the rotation is not counted and a new one is started from pie slice 6.
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