The Rat Helplessness Chamber Model 80010 allows
researchers to test for failure to escape aversive
stimulus. The helplessness chamber comes with a
revolution count selector switch to easily adjust task
difficulty. The rat is placed in the chamber which has a
12-rung wheel located in the front of the rat. The rat's
tail is immobilized so that tail-shocks can be
administered.
Escapable:
The helplessness chamber wheel turn output is read by
the computer through appropriate interfacing. ABET or
other suitable scheduling software is used to program
the desired behavioral escape response. Turning the
wheel to the pre-programmed number of revolutions will
turn off the shock generator. Rats will learn quickly to
turn the wheel to avoid the tail-shock.
Inescapable:
With two helplessness chambers one rat is the control
and a second rat is yoked through the interfacing and
scheduling software. Both rats have electrodes on their
tails but the control rat is not connected to the shock
generator. The rat in the yoked chamber has no control
over the delivery of tail-shock and is thus in an
inescapable paradigm. The rat in the control chamber
will not receive the tail-shock but will experience
behavioral contingencies. The yoked rat will receive all
the tail-shocks that the control rat allows.
Hardware Specifications:
Overall Dimensions:
Chamber Dimensions:
Counts per Revolution:
Chamber Material:
Power Requirements:
Wheel Turn Output:
19.0" x 9.0" x 7.3"
5.4" x 4.4" x 7.8"
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32
Floor & Top - 0.062" Aluminum
Side Walls - 0.125" Clear Polycarbonate
Tail Support - UHMW Polyethylene
Wheel - Aluminum Rungs, Polycarbonate Side Walls
28 VDC, 35mA
Open-collector, max I-sink 5mA (Active low)
Options:
Model 88500
ABET Software & Starter Kit - for operant control and
monitoring of wheel turns
