ANY-maze 7.49 – Flexible Video Tracking System for Automated Behavioral Neuroscience Experiments

ANY-maze is a flexible video tracking system developed by ANY-maze (Stoelting Co.) that automates testing in behavioral neuroscience experiments . It is designed to be used with almost any type of behavioral testing apparatus and is flexible enough to adapt to new equipment or new testing protocols .

The system works by tracking animals (typically rodents, but also zebrafish, quails, marmosets, and others ) using whole-animal, three-point, or head tracking. It provides over 100 different measures, including distance travelled, speed, time in zones, zone entries, latency, immobility, freezing, rearing, and investigation behavior .

ANY-maze’s key strength is its flexibility: users can draw zones of any shape, define sequences of movements between areas, and build complex test procedures using an intuitive visual programming interface . The software also integrates with a family of hardware interfaces (AMi-2) to acquire data from external devices and control equipment such as lights, speakers, lasers, and pellet dispensers during tests.

Primary Users

ANY-maze 7.49 is designed for behavioral neuroscientists, researchers, and laboratory technicians who need to automate testing in animal behavior experiments. It serves professionals who:

  • Automate behavioral testing in mazes such as water-maze, plus-maze, T-maze, light-dark boxes, and place preference boxes

  • Track multiple animals simultaneously — up to 40 apparatus in the standard system, or up to 48 for specialized applications like zebrafish

  • Acquire and control external equipment via the AMi-2 interface family, including optogenetic lasers, shockers, pellet dispensers, levers, and running wheels

  • Analyze behavior across time with hundreds of built-in measures including zone entries, distance travelled, immobility, freezing, and rearing

  • Perform statistical analysis with over 30 built-in parametric, non-parametric, and post-hoc tests, and export data to Excel, SPSS, and Statistica

Key Features & Capabilities

Tracking and Detection

  • Whole-animal tracking: Precisely detects arm entries and zone boundaries

  • Three-point tracking: Tracks head, centre, and base of tail to provide both location and orientation

  • Head tracking: Enables measures such as time moving towards a point, average distance from point, and investigation behavior

  • Immobility and freezing detection: Automatically detects immobility and freezing, ideal for fear conditioning

  • Robust tracking: Works accurately even in poor light or low contrast

Zone and Sequence Definition

  • Flexible zones: Draw shapes to divide apparatus into areas, then combine areas to create any number of zones. Zones can be added, edited, or removed at any time — even after tests have been performed, without needing to re-track

  • Sequences: Define sequences to detect movements between areas or zones

  • Points: Define points of interest for distance and orientation measures

External Device Integration (AMi-2 Interfaces)

ANY-maze interfaces with a range of external equipment via the AMi-2 family :

  • Digital Interface: Connect levers, photobeams, running wheels, shockers, pellet dispensers, cue lights

  • Optogenetic Interface: Independently control up to four optogenetic lasers with high-precision pulsing

  • Touch Switch Interface: Detect licking, paw touches, or conductive contact

  • Analogue Interface: Connect respiratory gas analysers, blood pressure monitors, EEG

  • Relay Interface: Six output ports to turn devices on/off

  • Audio Interface: Six outputs for white noise, tones, or sound files

  • Synchronisation Interface: Six TTL ports for synchronizing with external systems

Experiment Management

  • Test schedule: ANY-maze automatically maintains a schedule showing the status of all tests in an experiment. Break experiments into stages containing repeated trials

  • Flexible scheduling: Skip tests, retire animals, or add tests as you go along

  • High throughput: Run independent tests in up to 40 apparatus simultaneously

  • Real-time warnings: Warnings such as a dispenser running out of pellets are reported immediately

Analysis and Results

  • Hundreds of measures: Results are available for the whole apparatus and for each zone, point, sequence, behaviour, input, and output

  • Analysis across time: Results reported for the full test duration, equal-length time-bins, or specific periods

  • Visualisation: Track plots and heat maps for qualitative assessment

  • Built-in statistics: Over 30 built-in parametric, non-parametric, and post-hoc tests

  • Data export: Copy and save data in formats for Excel, SPSS, and Statistica

Procedures

  • Visual programming: Build procedures from easily understood statements to automate complex tests

  • Simple to sophisticated: From ending a water-maze test when the animal finds the island, to complex rules based on animal behaviour

What’s New in ANY-maze 7.49

ANY-maze does not publicly document version-specific release notes for each 7.x update. However, the version 7.x series represents a mature, actively maintained platform with the following characteristics:

  • Free lifetime updates: All updates to the system are included with the license — there are no upgrade fees

  • No modules: All features are included in the single system; there are no add-on modules to purchase

  • Lifetime technical support: Unlimited access to the support team is available to all ANY-maze users forever and for free