EthoVision XT at the core of your lab

Over the last 25 years, EthoVision XT has evolved from video tracking software into a software platform. Designed to be at the core of your lab, EthoVision XT offers integration of data and automation of behavioral experiments with any animal.

Video tracking technology is versatile and we want you to have software that fits the bill for all of your experiments, from straight-forward protocols such as open field or Morris water maze testing to high-throughput protocols or the automation of optogenetics or operant conditioning tests.

Our Noldus EthoVision is awesome. We use it to track zebrafish larvae in real-time. DR. D. TOMASELLO |WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH, USA VIA SELECTSCIENCE

What is video tracking?

Video tracking means detecting an animal in a video file or from a live video feed, distinguishing it from its background, and tracking its whereabouts and movements. This is at the core of EthoVision XT.

In addition to tracking, EthoVision XT can also detect activity changes at pixel-level, ideal for studying behaviors such as freezing. You can also manually or automatically score behavioral events, such as rearing or grooming.

What you get out of it

As you can imagine the resulting coordinates and time stamps allow for many different kinds of analyses. EthoVision XT extracts a number of parameters (velocity, distance moved, time spent in a certain zone, and many, many more), and there are several ways to visualize your results, such as in the form of plots, graphs, tracks, and heatmaps.

Integration platform

When you define areas of interest in your arena, EthoVision XT relates movement, activity, and behavior to these zones, and use this information to base control of external equipment on. For example, drop a pellet as the mouse enters the correct arm of a radial arm maze.

EthoVision XT can also be used to integrate optogenetics, operant conditioning, and physiological data streams into your experiment.

Examples of recent publications

• Iturra-Mena, A. M.; Aguilar-Rivera, M.; Arriagada-Solimano, M.; Pérez-Valenzuela, C.; Fuentealba, P. & Dagnino-Subiabre, A. (2019). Impact of stress on gamma oscillations in the rat nucleus accumbens during spontaneous social interaction. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 13, 151.
• Phillips, K. F., Santos, E., Blair, R. E. & Deshpande, L. S. (2019). Targeting Intracellular Calcium Stores Alleviates Neurological Morbidities in a DFP-Based Rat Model of Gulf War Illness. Toxicological sciences, 169(2), 567-578.
• Sharon, G., Cruz, N. J., Kang, D. W., Gandal, M. J., Wang, B., Kim, Y. M., … & Bramer, L. M. (2019). Human Gut Microbiota from Autism Spectrum Disorder Promote Behavioral Symptoms in Mice. Cell, 177(6), 1600-1618.