Figure 2.
Interlocking Gaps Do Not Alter Navigational Behavior
(A) Schematics of the square-shaped maze test. An example running trajectory of a rat is superimposed on the maze. The numbers indicate gap locations. R1 and R2 indicate food dispensers. Linearized gap locations are illustrated at the bottom.
(B and C) Left, the average running speed and head direction of four rats as a function of the linearized location. The dots indicate the location of outliers for each lap. Right, the average number of outliers on the regions around the gap (gray shaded areas) and others (running speed: t = −0.19, df = 6, p = 0.86; head direction: t = −5.53, df = 6, p = 0.0015, two-tailed paired t test). **p < 0.01, n.s.: p > 0.05. Error bars indicate SEM.
(D) Left, the percentage of the occupancy time over the entire maze as a function of the linearized location of four rats. Right, the median percentage of the occupancy time at gap locations (median, first and third quartiles, minimum, and maximum indicated). The rats preferentially slow down at gap #7 as compared with gaps #3 and #10, which are located at the top and bottom of the maze (F1,3 = 152.69, p = 0.0011; gap #7 versus #3: p = 0.049; gap #7 versus #10: p = 0.030, One-way repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc Tukey's honestly significant difference test). *p < 0.05