In collaboration with Simian Labs, MazeEngineers is proud to offer a virtual reality T maze for researchers

The Virtual Plus Mazes can use a combination of real-world elements and virtual elements. The virtual reality environment can be created as per the need of the experiment. In the Simian version, multiple environments can be configured. See price and specifications for equipment list

Specification

1 Configure your Experiment Online

All configurations work as a drag and drop so your experiment is easy to configure, change, and collect data easily

2 Multivariable Isolation

Isolate Who, What, When, Where, Why & How. Simian VR is VR for scientists to experiment.

3 Collect Data

Pathway views, raw data, and first person views all for review

Introduction

The T-Maze is a commonly used task for assessment of spatial learning and memory in rodents. In the late 1950’s the T-Maze was used by Dember and Fowler in the study of alternation behaviors in rodents. The T-Maze has a simple design that allows only two choices from the start position. In rodents, their natural explorative behaviors are exploited by this maze to access their ability to learn. An alternation in the selection of choice arm in usually expected as the rodents naturally prefer to explore an unvisited area. The usual T-Maze protocols are the left-right discrimination and the forced alternation tasks and are used to assess reference and working memory. Alternation task, both rewarded and spontaneous, has been shown to be effective in detecting hippocampal dysfunction and lesions

Similar to the T-Maze is the Y-Maze, which is an adaptation of the former. The Y-Maze uses a natural turn-angle for each arm as opposed to the 90-degree angles of the T-Maze arm. This adaptation more closely reflects the natural environment of the rodents. The T-Maze serves as a simple test for hippocampal learning and detection of cognitive dysfunction and has been used extensively to study drugs and toxins that affect spatial memory, and age-related cognitive decline (Sharma et al., 2010). The T-Maze has also been adapted for zebrafish studies (Zebrafish T-Maze). Another adaptation of the T-Maze is the Water T-Maze that combines the Morris Water Maze and the T-Maze, and the Continuous Angled T-Maze, which has frequently been used in grid cell investigations

Review

The simplicity of the T-Maze makes it a popular assay for testing learning and memory. The virtual T-Maze has been used for varied purposes of the investigation in humans. The main application of the task is in the assessment of spatial navigation. In their study concerning gender differences in spatial strategies, Astur et al. (2016) evaluated males and females in a virtual T-Maze task. The participants were assessed for their usage of place or response strategy to navigate the T-Maze

The T-Maze is also used to observe the brain activation patterns when presented with the negative or positive event. Understanding the functioning of the brain serves a critical purpose in the development of treatments and in analyzing the effects of pharmacological compounds. Rodrigues et al. (2008) used a combination of trials and event-triggered entities to create 6 T-Maze testing scenarios to assess the frontal alpha activation patterns using EEG. Understanding response to a reward or a punishment provides a deeper understanding of how the human mind process these results of an action. The study by Heydari and Holroyd CB (2016) evaluated the reward feedback stimuli elicited brain activity to investigate the theory that reward positivity reflects a salience prediction error rather than a reward prediction error

Event-related brain potential (ERP) experiments hold an important place in experimental cognitive psychology. The virtual T-Maze task allows a simple method via which brain activities can be observed in real time while the participants are involved in decision making and learning. Baker et al. (2011) used the virtual T-Maze to investigate the effect of substance abuse on the frontal brain area that is involved in implementing cognitive control and decision-making