The advantage over the water maze is that the Barnes Maze is easier to set-up, not requiring the use of water, hence it's probably less stressful for the animal, especially in the case of mice.
All Animal Mazes manufactured by Ugo Basile are designed to give optimal results with any Video-Tracking software. This is achieved by:
- high-contrast colors: grey, white, black or the NEW Ugo Basile light-blue
- non-reflective surface: reflections are a common source of error in animal tracking. Let’s avoid them!
All materials were selected to be sturdy and easy to clean, to construct reliable and durable mazes.
The Ugo Basile Barnes Maze is available for mice or for rats. The animal shelter is included with the maze and it can be magnetically attached underneath any hole very easily: the shelter bottom can be detached for cleaning: a removable ramp is included, so that the animal finds it easier to enter the shelter. Optional cups (“fake holes”) are available as optional, to be attached to the empty holes.
The mouse Barnes Maze, has a diameter of 100cm: 20 holes (5cm diam.) are positioned along the maze rim. The rat model is 130 cm of diameter and its 20 holes have a diameter of 10cm. Height from the floor is60cm for either model. The Barnes-Maze is supported by 4 metal legs, which make the device very stable.Custom model can be made on request: see for example the special model with interchangeable tables.
The new model of Active Avoidance Set-Up has been designed to enable the researcher to perform a wide range of… 
The Passive Avoidance Set-Up (step-trough method) by Ugo Basile, is an efficient and reliable instrument for the classic Passive Avoidance… 
The UGO BASILE ANY-maze controlled Fear Conditioning System (Fear Conditioning 2.1) automates the two most common fear conditioning paradigms: Contextual Fear… 
The Ultimate Intra/Extra-Dimensional (ID-ED) Attentional Set-Shifting Task for Mice 
The Ugo Basile Water Mazes are water pools specifically designed and manufactured for the Morris water maze test.