In collaboration with Simian Labs, MazeEngineers is proud to offer a virtual reality Radial Arm maze for researchers

The Virtual RAM Mazes can use a combination of real-world elements and virtual elements. The virtual reality environment can be created as per the need of the experiment. In the Simian version, multiple environments can be configured

Specification

1 Configure your Experiment Online

All configurations work as a drag and drop so your experiment is easy to configure, change, and collect data easily

2 Multivariable Isolation

Isolate Who, What, When, Where, Why & How. Simian VR is VR for scientists to experiment.

3 Collect Data

Pathway views, raw data, and first person views all for review

Introduction

The Radial Arm Maze (RAM) is a popular assay for studying spatial learning and memory in rodents. The maze was first used by Olton and Samuelson in 1976 to demonstrate the efficiency and memory of rodents in choosing an average of more than seven different arms in the first eight choices. The maze is based on the innate exploratory nature of the rodents and their ability to remember spatial locations, especially when rewarded. The Radial Arm Maze has been extensively used over the years in behavioral neuroscience research due to its effectiveness in measuring working and reference memory. The maze in comparison to other mazes puts minimal stress on the subjects

The difficulty of the Radial Arm Maze task can be varied by simple modifications such as varying the number of arms. The 3D Radial Arm Maze is an adaptation of the conventional maze that removes the availability of safe spaces. This adaptation has flexible arms that allow different arm configurations. Unlike the traditional maze, the 3D RAM adds in the aversive component via the elevation and lack of walled arms. Another modification of the traditional RAM is the water Radial Arm Maze. This maze combines the advantages of the Morris Water Morris Maze and the RAM. The T-Maze and the Y-Maze are other similar mazes that also test spatial learning and memory

Review

The Radial Arm Maze serves as an ideal task for the assessment of learning and memory deficits and observation of brain function. The classical rodent’s radial arm maze task has been translated to humans using virtual radial arm mazes. The Virtual Radial Arm Maze has been used in studies relating to spatial learning and memory performances in individuals with neuropsychiatric illnesses. In their study of patients with Bulimia Nervosa using the virtual RAM, Cyr et al., 2016 observed that Bulimia Nervosa patients showed the abnormal functioning of the anterior hippocampus and frontostriatal regions. Another study evaluated the performance of Schizophrenics in a rewarded virtual Radial Arm Maze task. Spieker et al. (2016) tested Schizophrenic patients treated with antipsychotics on a desktop virtual RAM task. On comparison of maze performance with healthy controls, Schizophrenic participants were seen having decreased latencies to the rewards. The patients also made comparatively more working and reference errors

The Virtual Radial Arm Task has also been used in understanding the role of gender and age in the navigational task performance. Levy et al. (2005) used a 12-arm virtual Radial Arm Maze to evaluate the spatial learning in men and women. Their investigation showed no difference in performance. The lack of difference was attributed to the superior object memory of women which, they believed, enabled them to associate the arms of the maze with specific extra-maze cues

The Radial Arm Maze is also used in studying brain activity. In their investigation, Iglói et al. (2015) probed the role of the cerebellum in human spatial navigation. Another study by Demanuele et al. (2015) used a delayed win-shift virtual Radial Arm Maze task to investigate cognition and cognitive disturbances in humans. Investigation of brain activity in tasks such as the Radial Arm Maze allows understanding of how different parts of the brain operate and contribute to an individual’s learning and memory abilities