Stoelting™ Fear Conditioning System

Description

• System uses the two most common fear conditioning paradigms: Contextual Fear Conditioning Acoustically-Cued Fear Conditioning Fear conditioning is the method by which animals learn to fear new stimuli
• It is a form of learning in which fear is associated with a particular neutral context (e.g
• a room) or neutral stimulus (e.g
• a tone)
• This can be done by pairing the neutral stimulus with an aversive stimulus (e.g
• a shock)
• Eventually, the neutral stimulus alone can elicit the state of fear
• The detection of Freezing is automated and based on video analysis, by using the Any-Maze software (specific version for Fear Conditioning), which also controls the shocker and the sound generator
• System also works in total darkness
• Includes the following: Fear Conditioning Specific version of ANY-maze Behavioral Tracking Software FireWire camera Sound Generator Shocker Animal Enclosure with electrified grid floor Sound-Attenuating Chamber with light and fan Context Kit (to alter chamber’s color and texture) System componenet Does not include a computer but a computer is required ANY-maze software (specific to the Fear Conditioning apparatus) Immobility (fear-induced freezing) quantitatively measured using video-based detection Automatically calculates parameters of interest such as: Total freezing time Number of freezing episodes Duration of freeing episodes Latency times between stimuli and freezing events FC Chamber Shocker Constant current (from 0.1 to 2.9 mA in 0.1 mA steps) Sound Generator Two Independent channels with adjustable frequency and intensity (100 to 40,000 Hz; 1 to 150 dB) Two independent white noise channels ANY-maze driven speaker (and light) can be freely positioned within the sound-attenuation chamber Enclosure with Electrified Grid Floor Convenient and innovative opening and debris tray (17 x 17 x 25(h) cm) Sound-Attenuating Chamber - Minimizes travel of ultrasonic vocalizations and fear-related pheromones Includes light and fan Context Kit Includes a set of removable contexts to alter the animal enclosure’s color and texture Note: Macintosh Operating Systems are not supported.