DrugEffectScan is an optional module for TopScan that is a powerful and effective tool for detecting commonly occurring behaviors of animals under drug effects: head waving and darting.
DrugEffectScan provides several measures for the detection of head waving including: number of times the head turns to the left, number of times the head turns to the right, and frequency of head waving. DrugEffectScan also detects how many darting behaviors occur during testing, and gives measurements of speed and distance for each darting behavior.
DrugEffectScan also, has the capability to detect in-place motion. Animals under drug effects perform micro-movements while remaining stationary in the same place. These minor movements have been shown to be an important behavioral indicator of drug effects in animal models. Detection of these events allows for a more comprehensive analysis of behavior.
DrugEffectScan is bundled with the LocoScan module of TopScan to provide general locomotor information including: zone visits, crossovers, speed, motion, immobility, elongation, and shape.
Optional features for integration include: Circling, Flat‐back approach, Grooming and Thigmotaxis. The addition of these optional behaviors allow for the analysis of a broader range of stereotypic behaviors.
DrugEffectScan can be applied to achieve high throughput screening as well. System architecture for high throughput screening has been designed that involves analysis of up to 32 arenas on a system, depending on how large the arenas are. Such high levels of throughput are possible as we can integrate multiple cameras together into the TopScan system. The High‐Throughput product option is necessary to analyze more than a single arena simultaneously. The Real time Option is necessary to perform real time analysis where the live video feed into the computer is compressed, encoded, saved to the hard drive while simultaneously full analysis of the video is performed.
Many advanced features are incorporated, including supporting full color analysis, automatic adaptation to non‐uniform or changing environment, automated handling of light/dark areas, variable speed playback of specific video segment for specific detected behavior, etc.
Complete Turn‐key systems including all necessary Hardware and Software are available. Custom design of your environment to facilitate analysis, including lighting condition setup, IR/red light setup, cage enclosures, video integration, and video‐feed to computer is also available
