The Panlab/Harvard Apparatus Startlefear combined system is designed for conducting both fear conditioning and startle reflex experiments in one enclosure.
The system's load sensitive weight transducer is sensitive enough to be used with mice or rats.
It is a flexible system and research tool for contextual and emotional learning.
The Panlab/Harvard Apparatus Startlefear system is easy to modify.
It comes with a sound attenuating chamber and light source and sound generator.
Options allow the user to add shock and/or airpuff for unconditioned aversive stimuli for a variety of experimental conditions.
The chamber is modular, with methacrylate walls and transparent door.
Different colours and materials can be added to vary the tactile and visual elements.
Additionally, the testing platform can be removed from the sound attenuating chamber to modify context and test location independence of a conditioned response.
Paradigms can easily be programmed and tracked using Startle and Freezing modules.
Startle and Freezing allow the user to set up a choice of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, as well as time gaps between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli for trace conditioning.
The software modules allows for the option of running up to eight chambers simultaneously with the flexibility to define thresholds for analysis and it can reanalyse the data using different user defined parameters.
All the data is displayed in real time and allows the user to see freezing versus immobility, maximum amplitude of startle and the time period between startle onset to the maximum, maximum latency to startle onset, and duration of startle responses.
Ease of use, user-defined conditions, modular testing chamber, and ability to run multiple set-ups simultaneously make the Startlefear combined system ideal for testing learning and memory in a variety of applications including Alzheimer's, anxiety and fear research, schizophrenia, and ADHD.
