Fractal dimensions: A new paradigm

to assess spatial memory and

learning using Morris water maze

Surjeet Singh
Date: 14/09/2016

Surjeet Singh, Harpreet Kaur and Rajat Sandhir, Fractal dimensions: A new paradigm to assess spatial memory and
learning using Morris water maze, Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 299, pp 141-146, February 2016.

Introduction
Fractals were introduced by Mandelbrot to describe
naturally occurring fragmented and irregular structures
which exhibit self-similarity.
Benot Mandelbrot(1967). "How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity
and Fractional Dimension",Science,New Series, Vol. 156, No. 3775. (May 5, 1967), pp. 636638.

It was in year 1975 Mandelbrot coined the term Fractal from

the Latin adjective fractus . The corresponding Latin verb
frangere means to break to create irregular fragments.

Classes of
fractals
Not
deterministic

Deterministic
Linear

Not
linear

IFS
Cantor set
Koch curve
Minkowski curve
Hilbert curve
Sierpinski gasket

Mandelbrot set
Strange attractors
Bifurcation
diagrams
Julia sets

Fractal Brownian motion

Diffusion limited
aggregation

Jaspreet Kaur, Surjeet Singh and Ankush Kansal,

Multiband Behaviour of Sierpinski Fractal Antenna,
Research Journal of Information Technology, vol. 3, no.1,
pp. 35-43, 2011.

Romanesco Broccoli

Fractals in Nature

Romanesco Broccoli

Bronchial tree

Human Brain

Fern

Snow flake

Atrophic Changes
in the Cerebral
Cortex

Material and Methods

Adult male wistar rats (220-250g) were procured from the
Central Animal House of Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Animal were segregated into three groups (6 animals per
group)
Control:
Animals were administered with vehicle (normal
saline) intraperitoneally daily for the duration of treatment

PTZ:
Animals were administered PTZ intraperitoneally,
(dissolved in saline) at a dose of 40 mg/kg every alternate
day for a period of 30 days. A single dose of PTZ was
administered on day 40(challenge dose) to ensure kindling
success as described in our recent article.

Scopolamine: Animals were administered with 1mg/kg body

weight scopolamine (dissolved in normal saline) for five days.

Neurobehavioral Test
Neurobehavioral deficits following the treatment paradigm were
assessed using morris water maze test (Spatial acquisition).
To track the animal we implemented frame differencing algorithm in
MATLAB. Video of the animal in morris water maze was captured from
a ceiling mounted camera at and resolution.

Figure 1: Procedure to plot track of animals in Morris water maze

using frame differencing algorithm.

Figure 2: Track plots of animals in Morris water maze (a)

from ANY-maze, and (b) from custom written MATLAB
script.

Figure 3: Fractal dimension of animal path in Morris water maze

calculated using box-counting algorithm (a) track plot, (b)
image after Canny edge detection, and (c) the least squares
regression for all data points (blue circles) is indicated by the
solid line (black line).

Figure 4: Statistical analysis of (a)

escape latency, (b) distance travelled
and (c) fractal dimension of animal
path. All values are expressed as mean
SEM; n=6/group. *#significantly different
from control group (p<0.05).

Table 1: Comparison of fractal dimensions, escape latency & distance travelled among Control,
PTZ & Scopolamine treated groups.
Groups

Fractal Dimensions

Escape Latency (s)

Distance Travelled (m)

Control

1.04 0.03

9.91 0.78

2.38 0.45

PTZ

1.61 0.02*

41.16 6.01*

23.66 2.34*

Scopolamine

1.72 0.01#

84.56 18.87#

36.77 3.52#

All values are expressed as mean SEM; n=6/group. *#significantly different from control group (p<0.05).

Conclusion
In conclusion, this study suggest that fractal dimensions could
be used as an independent/additional parameter to access
spatial learning and memory functions in animals using Morris
water maze.
The fractal dimension is more reliable parameter compared to
escape latency (escape latency is confounded by swimming
speed which is not necessarily a cognitive factor).
In addition, the MATLAB script developed in the study can be an
economically viable option as commercially available animal
tracking softwares are very expensive.

Prospective techniques to be used

for my projects at CCBN
Development of an automated headfixed preparation to study the neural
mechanism of sensory perception in
rodents.
Imaging Neuronal Activity with
Voltage- and Calcium-Sensitive Dyes.
Juxtasomal Biocytin Labeling to
Study
the
Structure-function
Relationship of Individual Cortical
Neurons.