What is the Elevated Zero-Maze?

The Elevated Zero-Maze (EZM) is a circular refinement of the Elevated Plus Maze designed to address its main methodological limitation: the ambiguous center zone. In the EPM, time spent in the center square cannot be classified as either open or closed arm exposure, creating an unscored behavioral state that can mask true differences in anxiety. The EZM's annular (donut) design eliminates this by creating a continuous track with two open and two closed quadrants in alternating sequence, ensuring every location on the maze is unambiguously classified. This provides cleaner, more sensitive anxiety data, particularly when testing animals that display high center occupancy.

Key Features

• No Center Zone Ambiguity: The annular layout means every point on the maze is either open or closed, eliminating the unclassifiable center zone of the plus maze and providing 100% scorable behavioral data.
• Gradual Open-to-Enclosed Transition: Rather than an abrupt T-junction between open and closed areas, the EZM provides a smooth curved transition that more closely mimics natural environmental gradients and produces more graded anxiety responses.
• Non-Reflective, Anti-Glare Surface: High-contrast grey construction with anti-glare treatment ensures artifact-free video tracking throughout the circular track.
• Metal Leg Stability: Four metal legs at 60 cm provide a vibration-resistant platform appropriate for sensitive behavioral recordings.
• Rat and Mouse Sizes: Cat. 40162 (rats: 120 cm diameter, 10 cm track width) and Cat. 40163 (mice: 60 cm diameter, 5 cm width) are each appropriately scaled for natural locomotion in their respective species.