News

New UBSN Equipment Accessory - Tail Suspension Test & Forced Swim Test add-ons

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce two new accessories added to the animal behavioural equipment bundle here at UBSN - the Tail Suspension Test add-on, and the Forced Swim Test add-on.   Our add-on accessories provides users with more convenience and flexibility when borrowing and utilising our existing Open Field Test Arena (part of the animal behavioural equipment bundle) to carry out the Tail Suspension Test and Forced Swim Test. Simply book the equipment with its add-ons and assemble up to 4 Tail Suspension Test chambers or 2 Forced Swim Test chambers.   The Tail Suspension Test is a commonly employed test used for assessing depressive-like behaviour in rodents. By suspending the animal by its tail, this test measures immobility time as an indicator of despair-like behaviour. It aids in studying the efficacy of potential treatments and enhancing our comprehension of depressive disorders.   The Forced Swim Test is a widely used behavioural test, placing rodents in an unpleasant environment, assessing their depressive-like behaviour. This test provides valuable insights into the efficacy of potential antidepressant treatments and helps advance our understanding of mood disorders.   You can view details of all our equipment on our UBSN website: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/en/ubsn/facilities/equipment/ For other enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Howard CHAN (howardhw.chan@polyu.edu.hk).     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)

New UBSN Equipment Accessory - OptoACTIVE

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce a new equipment accessory here at UBSN - OptoACTIVE, an MRI-compatible active noise cancellation system, now located in ZB216.   OptoACTIVE™ provides the highest level of noise reduction available in MRI-safe headphones, and is the only communications system to use real-time algorithmic, active harmonic noise cancelling, as well as Optoacoustics’ proprietary passive noise reduction techniques, to reduce 60 dB (over 95%) of MR EPI main gradient resonance noise for the patient.   Ultra-slim OptoACTIVE headphones are designed for advanced 20- or 32-channel coils used in 3T and 7T fMRI. OptoACTIVE provides the slimmest and most sensitive headphones available today for use in MRI, with a frequency response range of 50-20,000 Hz. Built-in optical microphones enable automatic self-calibration, SPL monitoring and real-time in-ear stereo sound recording. With its proprietary DSP and predictive behaviour algorithms, OptoACTIVE sets the standard for robust, dependable active noise control in a wide variety of applications and settings, regardless of the MRI platform.   For enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Celia DONG (celia.dong@polyu.edu.hk). For more information, please go to our OptoACTVE information page.     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)

New UBSN Equipment Accessory - ANY-maze software

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce a new equipment accessory here at UBSN - ANY-maze software, now installed on our behavioural computer in ST108b.   The ANY-maze Behaviour Tracking Software is a comprehensive yet easy-to-use video-tracking system for recording and analysing animal activity and movement during virtually any behavioral tests and mazes, such as light/dark box, plus-maze, Barns maze, water maze, etc. ANY-maze supports live or offline video analyses, data grouping for control and treatment groups, custom definition of arena boundary and zones, whole-animal tracking to detect position and orientation of the animal. ANY-maze also generates visualisation of common metrics such as location heatmaps, distance and velocity charts. Data can be further analysed within ANY-maze or exported to other softwares such as EXCEL or SPSS for parametric, non-parametric and post-hoc tests.   You are strongly encouraged to use our licensed copy of ANY-maze software with UBSN's animal behavioural equipment.   For enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Howard CHAN (howardhw.chan@polyu.edu.hk). For more information, please go to our ANY-Maze software page.     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)

New UBSN Equipment - NIRSport 2

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce a newly acquired equipment here at UBSN -NIRSport 2, now located in ZB217. The NIRSport 2, a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) platform, is used to measure cerebral hemodynamics using a non-invasive method. This detection is determined by two types of near-infrared wavelength spectroscopy (NIRS). By reflecting near-infrared light off the cerebral tissue, information on tissue oxygenation and metabolism can be obtained. The NIRSport 2 is lightweight and hence suitable for application in motion-based studies. It has been used in various research domains involving healthy populations and patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.   For enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Tommy LAM (lh-tommy.lam@polyu.edu.hk). For more information, please go to our NIRSport 2 page.     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)

New UBSN Equipment - Mock MR Scanner

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce a newly acquired equipment here at UBSN - Mock MR Scanner, now located in ZB220.   The mock MR system is designed to provide participants an experience similar to what they will experience in the real MRI scanner. It includes a moving table, a realistic head coil, equipment for audio presentation of scanner noise, visual and audio stimulation system, and a set of button boxes for participants responses.   In practice, failed MRI scans and unusable data caused by claustrophobia, anxiety, and excessive head and body motion cost significant time and resources. Acclimating participants to the environment with a mock scanner will increase the rate of successful data acquisition and quality of fMRI data. The mock scanner is also extremely useful for young children to orient them to the MRI environment and for training for in-scanner tasks.   For enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Celia DONG (celia.dong@polyu.edu.hk) For more information, please go to our MRI Overview page.     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)

New UBSN Equipment - Tobii Pro Glasses 3

Dear Staff and Students,     We are excited to announce a newly acquired equipment here at UBSN - Tobii Pro Glasses 3, now located in ZB217.   Tobii Glasses 3 is a wearable eye-tracking system. The head unit of Glasses 3 consists of eye tracking cameras, a high-definition scene camera and a microphone. This allows the system to record eye tracking data and a detailed first-person perspective simultaneously. Compared with the classical screen-based eye tracking system, the setting restrictions of this system is lower. It can be applied to both static and dynamic studies. A wider range of real-world environment could be explored, such as school environment, sports and consumer behaviour.   For enquiries, please contact our officer-in-charge: Dr. Tommy LAM (lh-tommy.lam@polyu.edu.hk). For more information, please go to our Tobii Pro Glasses 3 page.     Regards, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)