SEE: a tool for the visualization and analysis of rodent exploratory behavior

The complexity of exploratory behavior creates a need for a visualization a nd analysis tool that will highlight regularities and help generating new h ypotheses about the structure of this behavior. The hypotheses can then be formulated as algorithms that capture the patterns and quantify them. SEE i s a Mathematica based software developed by us for the exploration of explo ratory behavior. The raw data for SEE are a time series of the animal 's co ordinates in space sampled at a rate that allows a meaningful computation o f speeds. SEE permits: (i) a visualization of the path of the animal and a computation of the dynamics of activity; (ii) a decomposition of the path i nto several modes of motion (1st gear, 2nd gear, etc.) and a computation of the typical maximal speeds, the spatial spread, and the proportion of each of these modes; and(iii) a visualization of the location in the environmen t of stopping episodes, along with their dwell time. These visualizations h ighlight the presence of preferred places, including the animal's so-called home base, and permits a computation of the spatio-temporal diversity in t he location of stopping episodes. The software also: (i) decomposes the ani mal's path into round trips from the home base, called 'excursions', and co mputes the number of stops per excursion; (ii) generates a visualization of the phase space (path + speed, traced in a three-dimensional graph) of any progression segment or list of such segments; and (iii) produces a visuali zation of the way places in the animal's operational world are connected to each other. SEE also permits the definition and computation of behavioral endpoints across any section of any database of raw data. The range of appl icability of SEE to various experimental setups, tracking procedures, speci es, and preparations is addressed in the discussion. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.