Laboras Specifications

LABORAS is designed for and with the help of laboratory animal researchers, which has resulted in a system that is easy to use and matches your research needs.

Below we have summarized the main functions and performance of the Laboras equipment. Laboras is a modular system, so it is possible to configure the system with different combinations of functions and to upgrade the system at a later moment.

Standard Behavior detection functionality Resting (immobility): Movements are absent while the animal is in a sitting or lying position. Very short movements (e.g. turning over while sleeping ) are not considered as an interruption. Locomotion: Activities such as walking, running, jumping. Rearing (rats only): The animal is standing upright on its hind legs (mostly against a side wall of the cage). Eating: The animal eats food pellets while standing upright, gripping the bars of the food hopper or the climbing grid in the enriched cages. While the animal is climbing or hanging, the hind legs or tail may touch the floor or side wall of the cage. Drinking: The animal stands upright gripping the water bottle and licking water. Grooming: The animal is shaking, scratching, wiping or licking its fur, snout, ears, tail or genitals. Climbing (mouse only): Climbing and hanging on the bars of the wire cage lid or food hopper or on the climbing grid in the enriched cages. While the animal is climbing or hanging, the hind legs or tail may touch the floor or side wall of the cage. Undefined: All behaviours not classified in one of the previous categories.   Tracking functionality Position: The position of the animal relative to the center of the cage. (resolution = 1 mm; accuracy better than 5 mm) Distance traveled: The total distance traveled by the animal during the test. (resolution = 1 cm; accuracy better than 10 cm/hr) Maximum speed: The highest velocity of the animal during the test. (resolution = 0.1 cm/s; accuracy better than 0.5 cm/s) Position distribution: Graphical presentation showing the preference of the animal for certain spots. Circling: NEW! Number of circles (clockwise and counter clockwise) that the animal makes during test. Two types of circling are scored "wide circling" and "turning around the axis". In addition average diameter of circle, average time in circle, average speed in circle are calculated.	Special Behavior detection functionality Scratching (in mice and rats): NEW! Repetitive fast movement of the hindlimb, rubbing the side of the body, neck and face. Spontaneous scratching epsisodes are generally shorter than a second. Drug induced scratching or scratching because of skin diseases can last for seconds or even minutes. Purposeless Chewing (in rats) Chewing movements in the absence of food. Generally consisting of large chewing movements (head moving) and small chewing movements (lip movement only) Hindlimb licking (in rats) - Formalin Test The animal licks the hindlimb as a pain response to a formalin injection in the hindlimb. The three phase response consisting of Phase-I, Q(uiet)-phase and Phase-II are accurately determined by LABORAS. Wet Dog Shakes (in rats) A paroxysmic or quivering shudder of the trunk (body) up to the shoulders of the rat, consisting of a series of radial movements of the body, during which the trunk rotates along the center axis of the body. The quivering shudder seems to roll over the body of the animal from the shoulder to the tail. Depending of the intensity and type of WDS the quivering shudder sometimes extends beyond the shoulder of the animal, including the neck and sometimes the head. Seizures (in mice) Several types of strong seizures can be detected. Amongst others: Barrel roll seizures, tonic clonic seizures and seizures P4 and P5 (scored on the Racine scale). Freezing (in mice) - Fear conditioning test: NEW! The animal exhibits complete motionless behavior (only autonomous processes such as breathing and heartbeat are present). Freezing is often related to fear and anxiety and such is often use for fear conditioning tests. Startle response (in mice) - Fear conditioning test:  NEW! an involuntary reaction to a sudden unexpected stimulus (especially a loud sound); involves flexion of most skeletal muscles and a variety of visceral reactions. Startle is often related to fear and anxiety and such is often use for fear conditioning tests.
User Interface GLP compatible user interface and data management The software complies to the GLP requirements for software used in laboratory instruments Easy to use interface: Straight forward user interface with pull-down menus and experiment navigation tree extensive and complete experiment data administration All experiment data can be entered in the administration software module of LABORAS. The experiment data is added to the test results. Test sessions and related data being part of one experiment can be kept together in one experimental design.	Output definitions time tagged behaviour files and position files test result summaries over user definable windows: Including Behavior Durations and Behavior Frequencies export of test results in several commonly used formats: MS-Excel, SPSS, SAS/JMP, etc.