hc-6 : what is the exact shape of W-shaped track

Thank the lab of Loren Frank at UCSF for sharing the data hc-6. 

Paper: Mattias P. Karlsson and Loren M. Frank, 2009, "Awake replay of remote experiences in the hippocampus".

According the paper (Figure 1a), the shape of the W-shaped track has three arms of equal width. But the animal’s trajectory at the ends of three arms in W-shaped track seems to being broader. I am a bit confused whether the real track does have broader width at the end of the track or the animal prefer to walk in a broader area at the end of the track arm.

Looking forward to replies.

Best,

John

The actual track is ~7 cm wide everywhere, but the animal is tracked via infrared diodes on a boom on the head, and that, combined with the fact that the animal can tilt it's head sideways, can lead to the appearance of wider and narrower areas of the track. In general we estimate a mean of about 2 cm of noise in the position estimates as a result...

I hope that helps,

Loren