At a glance
The HVS 6D VR Morris Water Maze is a fully immersive, translational human equivalent of the rodent Morris water maze – not a screen-based approximation – with additional paradigms also available.
Key features:
- Fully immersive VR (head-mounted display, not a desktop task)
- Vestibular input from natural head turning
- Proprioceptive input via walking, treadplate or omnidirectional treadmill
- Alternative navigation modes enable controlled comparison of performance under conditions with greater or reduced reliance on vestibular and proprioceptive input.
- Rodent-equivalent protocols: hidden platform, visible platform, probe, reversal
- Advanced protocols supported, including dual-strategy and forced-strategy trials
- Direct comparability with animal data using the same behavioral analyses and full screen path plots
- Highly configurable experiments using a simple scripting language (editing a text file – no programming)
- Supports other paradigms such as ‘return-to-home’ triangle completion task (TCT)
- Allows natural integration of idiothetic (vestibular, proprioceptive, motor) and allothetic (visual) cues, or selective removal of specific inputs to isolate their individual contributions.
A true translational Morris Water Maze for humans
As well as supporting other paradigms, the HVS 6D VR Morris Water Maze provides a direct human analogue of the rodent Morris water maze, built on over 40 years of collaboration with water maze scientists, dating back to HVS Image’s development of the original tracking and analysis system for Richard Morris.
Unlike many “virtual water maze” tasks that are run on a flat computer screen, the HVS 6D system places participants inside the environment using immersive virtual reality. This allows spatial learning and navigation to engage the same sensory and cognitive systems that are critical in animal studies.
Researchers can choose between:
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- A laboratory-style water maze, with a rodent’s-eye perspective, matching the visual geometry of the animal task.
- An idealized environment, where nothing is visible except experimenter-defined cues
- Realistic human environments for specific translational or real-world spatial tasks
- A Minecraft version
Natural navigation: vestibular and proprioceptive input included
Participants wear a VR headset, allowing them to look freely around the arena. Head turning provides vestibular input, which is known to be critical for hippocampal spatial processing. Navigation can be configured in several ways, depending on the experimental question, with the first three often preferred for proprioceptive input:
- Walking on an omnidirectional treadmill (with safety rail reducing ataxia effects)
- Walking on a portable treadplate
- Physically moving around a suitably sized empty space (e.g. walking or by wheelchair)
- Head tilts – tilting forward (sagittal plane) to move forward, tilting left or right (coronal plane) to change direction, while turning left or right (transverse plane) to look around
- Hand-based, game-like navigation (VR controllers, gamepad, keyboard)
- Voice-based control – using voice to move forward
- This flexibility allows you to balance experimental control, ecological validity, and participant safety, while avoiding the limitations of purely visual or joystick-based navigation.
All standard and advanced water maze protocols supported
The system supports all protocols used in rodent and human virtual Morris water maze studies, including:
- Hidden platform (spatial learning)
- Visible platform (cue learning / control)
- Probe trials
- Reversal learning
- Reference and working memory designs
In addition, the system fully supports advanced strategy-based designs, including:
- Dual-strategy trials (proximal + distal cues available)
- Forced-strategy trials, where only allocentric or only egocentric strategies can succeed
These are ideal for studies dissociating:
- Allocentric vs egocentric navigation
- Hippocampal vs striatal strategies
- Strategy preference and cognitive flexibility
Identical analyses to the rodent Morris water maze
The same measures, definitions, and assumptions used in rodent Morris water maze analysis are applied directly to human VR data. Participant movement is analysed by HVS Image software, producing path plots and quantitative analyses that are directly equivalent to rodent studies, allowing true translational comparison.
These definitive HVS Image measures and analyses are recognized as the best set of scientific analyses for Morris water maze, and include the following – you can select as many or as few as needed to show in your results exports:
- Latency
- Path length
- Average speed
- Active speed (average speed corrected for time spent inactive)
- Percentage of time not moving, or moving below a certain speed
- Percentage of time in each quadrant
- Percentage of path in each quadrant
- Percentage of time in each circular zone (zones can be equi-spaced or equi-area)
- Heading error (angle relative to ideal path)
- Percentage of time in thigmotaxis
- Percentage of path in thigmotaxis
- Number of close passes (passes through counters – defined space around target and other positions of interest)
- Percentage time spent close to target and other positions of interest (percentage of time in counters)
- Latencies to get close to target and other positions of interest (latencies to counters)
- Close encounter time and path
- Corridor Test
- Cone Test
- Pool Circling
- Gallagher Measures (e.g. Gallagher Proximity Measure, Gallagher Cumulative Measure)
- Quad Entries
- Path Efficiency Ratio (actual path length / direct path length)
- Time Slices
- Gallagher by Segment
These analyses allow you to distinguish true spatial learning and memory from non-spatial or procedural strategies, just as in rodent studies.
Flexible experiment setup using a simple scripting language
Experiment configuration is powerful but simple.
Using a plain-text scripting language (no programming skills needed), senior scientists can define:
- The environment (laboratory, idealized, or optionally custom)
- Cue sets and cue visibility
- Platform position(s) and size
- Trial duration and inter-trial structure
- Probe, reversal, and extinction parameters
- Platform dwell time after successful trials
- Entire series of trials with different conditions
This allows complete experimental control while remaining transparent and reproducible.
Optionally, a simple form can be provided for experimenters to run trials using your chosen parameters, allowing them to adjust what you want them to (e.g. basic details such as Participant ID), without accessing those you wish to remain consistent.
Complete, standalone system
HVS Image provides a fully self-contained solution, including:
- HVS 6D VR software, including environments, behavior tracking, behavior identification, path plots and analysis
- High-spec PC or laptop (with the above pre-installed and ready to use)
- VR headset and accessories
- Optional omnidirectional treadmill or treadplate
- Sample configuration files for your chosen environment(s) and experiment types
Data exports are provided in CSV, with raw data available in JSON and text formats.
Experiments can be configured and analysed on additional computers if required.
Your work is not dependent on any third party services.
Beyond the water maze
In addition to laboratory and idealized water maze environments, available options include:
- Super-realistic apartment
- Suburban environment
- Forest and mountain landscapes
These can be used for real-world spatial memory tasks, navigation studies, and custom experimental designs. Additional environments and bespoke tasks can be developed in collaboration with your lab. We encourage you to contact us to discuss your plans.
Virtual Reality for Neuroscience with HVS Image
The HVS 6D VR Morris Water Maze is designed for researchers who want rigorous translational validity, full sensory engagement, and deep insight into navigation strategies, rather than a simplified desktop approximation.
Video examples
The 2D videos below do not do justice to the full immersive experience, but illustrate some configuration options:
Clip from a regular trial with a laboratory background, pool screens not selected:
Clip from a visible platform trial, using an idealized environment – no reflections, no shadows, no external walls etc:
External view of the VR Morris water maze. The experiment is normally run from the rodent’s point of view within the pool, with or without screens around the pool to replicate the animal experience, or with an idealized, plain environment where nothing is visible to the participant other than the cues you place.