The HVS 6D VR Morris water maze is designed to meet the needs of both advanced and non-advanced users. 
If you want maximum flexibility and control, you’ll have the ability to adjust any parameter you want to – including both those you would expect to set in a conventional Morris water maze task, and others that allow you to vary the task in different ways.
If you want a simple experience with ready-made experimental set-ups for your chosen protocols, you can tell us which parameters you want to be consistent across all trials and which you want the experimenter to be able to set. For example you may want to use the same navigation mode, environment, cues, platform size and trial duration in every trial, or you may want the experimenter to be able to vary one or more of these, along with trial type (visible platform, regular or probe) and potentially others.

Configurable items typically applied to an entire experiment or series of trials – note that any of these can also be varied within a series of trials if appropriate to your protocol:

• Type of environment:
  • Idealised, with nothing visible beyond the poolside, other than any cues you place (included as standard);
  • ‘Rodent’s eye view’ laboratory environment (included as standard);
  • Natural pool in a natural landscape (available option);
  • Minecraft (available option);
  • Eqivalent task in a human environment (alternative or additional option);
  • Third person version of the task, moving an arrow around the pool (as if the participant is looking down on the pool from above, or as if the pool is a vertical circular arena in front of the participant) – typically used with navigation by head tilts or key presses, set for either natural motion (where a left tilt changes the direction of the arrow, which moves forward in that direction) or game-like motion (where a left tilt causes leftward translation).
• Mode of navigation, e.g.:
  • Walking on omnidirectional treadmill or portable treadplate;
  • Head tilts (tilting forward (sagittal plane) to move forward, tilting left or right (coronal plane) to change direction, turning left or right (transverse plane) to look around);
  • Key presses – arrow keys for natural movement (with forward, left rotation and right rotation), letter keys for forward, backward, left translation and right translation (not recommended except in third person version or unless you have a specific reason);
  • Game-pad or VR hand held controllers;
  • Rotating chair, using game-pad or VR hand held controller to move forward, and physical rotation to change direction.
  • Finger movements, arm action, leg kicking, seated stepping, voice – or potentially other actions. Contact us if you have specific needs to meet.
  • Moving around an open space (e.g. walking or by wheelchair).
• Pre-trial start point – can be the same or different from the trial start point, e.g. in a practice pool for familiarisation, or in the rodent’s-eye laboratory version it can be in a holding pen, under the gaze of a lab techician. This allows time to ensure that the participant is comfortable, has a clear view in the headset and knows how to navigate, before the experimenter presses Enter to start the series of trials, at which point the participant finds themself at the trial start point.
• Target radius – equivalent to platform diameter. When the participant comes within this distance of the point set for the target location, this is equivalent to a rodent reaching the platform.
• Pool screens – you can choose to have screens around the pool, e.g. if replicating a rodent water maze.
• Distal cues – these can be placed relatively close to the outside of the pool (or on the screens, if used) to replicate a rodent water maze set-up, or much larger versions can be placed towards infinity to create truely distal cues, to show direction rather than position. (Visualise the moon staying in the same direction as you move from one side of a space to the other, vs a tree a few feet to one side ‘moving’ from slightly ahead of you initially to slightly behind you as you cross the space.)
• Proximal cues – if required for your protocol, one or multiple proximal cues can be placed in your chosen positions (e.g. above the pool), typically with one of a different color being above the target position. (In forced strategy trials to test spatial strategy use, or when distinguishing between spatial and visual strategies, the one above the target position will be moved.)
• Maximum trial duration – the search time allowed if the participant does not reach the target location. (In probe trials the trial will run to the maximum time even if the platform is reached.)
• Post-trial timeout – the time the participant stays at the target location (if reached) in order to learn the position. (Participant can turn and look around but can’t leave the location.)
• Return to start – if applicable to your protocol, set the task such that the participant has to try to return to the trial start point once the target has been reached and the post-trial timeout duration (if any) has elapsed.
• Series of trials can be set to give either a conventional series of MWM trials, or alternative tests – such as the triangle completion task where each subsequent trial starts from the previous trial’s target.
• Inter-trial interval – if required, set a time gap between the end of one trial and the start of the next.
• Message or instruction for paticipant to see on reaching the target (in any language).
• End of trial-time message or instruction for paticipant to see when the trial time limit is reached (in any language).
• End of series message or instruction for paticipant to see at the end of the series of trials (in any language).
• Fade time – how quickly the environment fades in and out between trials, if required.
• If using the form-based option (see below), you can set specific options for the experimenter to choose from for parameters such as start point (e.g. North, South, East, West, North-East etc), target/platform position (e.g. NE quadrant, SE quadrant etc), trial type, proximal cues if applicable.

Configurable items typically adjusted within an experiment:

• Experimenter name/ID
• Trial or series name
• Participant name/ID
• Descriptor – additional subject/participant label, e.g. group name
• Remarks you’ll see in your results file (e.g. you may use this to give a brief description of the experiment, such as ‘Horizontal idealized MWM series with navigation by treadmill and head turns’).
• Trial type – visible platform, regular (hidden platform), probe (trial continues even if the learned platform location is reached.)
• Trial start point – when using the scripting language, i.e. configuring by editing a text file (see below), the start point can be set anywhere in the pool using coordinates for position and direction faced; if using the form option, the experimenter has a finite number of positions to choose from.
• Target position – as above, this can be placed anywhere in the pool using the scripting language (text file), or specific options can be set to choose from if using the form option.
• Visible platform position (if running visible platform trials). In familiarisation or training trials, this will be the same as the target position. (It can however be placed elsewhere in the pool if your protocol involves finding a hidden position even if the visible marker is elsewhere.)

Configurable items used in special cases:

• Background sound can be added if required, e.g.:
  • To create an aversive stimulus that ends when the target is reached;
  • To cause distraction or test the participant under additional cognitive load;
  • To indicate the time passed or remaining (e.g. an audible countdown, or a piece of music);
  • End with soundtrack – the trial can be set to end at the end of a background soundtrack if the target is not reached first, e.g. at the end of a piece of music rather than at a maximum time. 
• EEG – EEG signals can be recorded for each second of the trial.
• Heart rate monitoring – heart rate can be recorded for each second of the trial.
• Biofeedback – if appropriate that task can be set to adjust automatically according to real time biofeedback.
• Rest or relaxation between each trial or set of trials:
  • With or without a relaxing or hypnotherapy soundtrack;
  • Either for a fixed duration or according to biofeedback – the next trial starts after EEG monitoring indicates the participant has been mentally relaxed for a set period of time.
• Gains on motion – give faster or slower than expected translation and/or rotation, with negative values causing translation or rotation in the opposite direction to that expected, if required.
• Participant’s scale – their perceived size relative to the environment. Changing the scale makes the pool seem larger or smaller.
• Collecting participants’ feedback before and/or after each series of trials – you can add this if required, including adding the specific questions you want them to answer.
• Sensitivity for forward motion – adjust what degree of action causes movement.
• Smoothing / inertia – adjust how long each step (or alternative) moves the participant forward for. This allows you to set either a smooth or stepped movement forward for your participants’ typical stepping speed. 
• For third person version, distance to the arena.

For maximum flexibility and control, you can adjust any of the above using our powerful scripting language, which simply involves editing text files (no programming is needed). For a simpler experience, we can provide the system set up with sample configuration files containing just the essential items for your experiments.

Optionally we can provide a trial set-up form, where you can set up each new series of trials, specifying just the parameters that will vary from trial to trial or series to series, along with details such as user ID and participant ID. We can also provide a form for the PI (for example) to set which parameters should appear in the trial set-up form, and to set values for parameters that will stay consistent throughout a whole experiment. 

Contact us to let us know your needs and goals!