PPCWIN software

Presentation

PPCWIN is an easy-to-use and complete software for monitoring Conditioned Place Preference (or aversion) tests and Black and White experiments (for anxiety). It has been specially designed to work with the BIOSEB Automated Place Preference and Black and White boxes equipped with weight transducers for the automatic detection of animal position.

PPCWIN controls independently up to 8 experimental chambers. The system includes a test mode enabling immediate and reliable checking of the communication between the software and the experimental chambers.

Operating pinciple

The Place Preference and Black and White boxes are basically divided in two different compartments connected by a grey corridor/door, respectively. One experiment can be composed of several sessions, depending on the number of experimental groups and animals per group used in the study. PPCWIN is easy to configure as the user only needs to enter the desired duration of experiment and some specific information about the session (subject name, group…). During data acquisition, information about protocol state, animal position and current data can be visualized for each cage on the corresponding control window.

PPCWIN provides a raw data table with all the standard parameters for conditioned place preference and Black and White experiments (permanence time in the compartments, number of entries…) and a detailed chronological sequence of animal displacements for each session. A report table can be generated containing the results from different stored session. Data from the tables of result can be easily exported in formats widely used to perform complementary analysis.

Parameters Measured

• Total number of entries into the black, white and grey compartments
• % distribution of the number of entries into the different compartments
• Permanence time in each compartment
• % permanence time in respect to the total duration of the experiment
• Chronological sequence of animal displacements
• Latency to the first transition regardless to the initial position
• Experiment duration

Domains of application

• ANXIETY:
- The most prevalent of the psychiatric diseases
- Anxiety disorders

• REWARD AND ADDICTION:
- Compulsive behavior which is reinforced or rewarded
- Drug addiction
- Chronic drug abuse

Key features

• Easy-to-use software for standard conditioned place preference experiments
• For both place preference and black and white experiments
• A test mode enables immediate checking of the communication between the software and the experimental chambers
• Current animal position can be visualized in real-time during the acquisition of data
• Provides integrated results
• Tables of result easily exportable in Excel format for further analysis
• RS232 or USB port direct connection