Open field activity tests are used to measure locomotor activity in rodents and can also serve as good preliminary tests to determine motor deficits, anxiety as well as effects of drugs and/or gene manipulations on motor-based function during phenotyping. Locomotor activity is measured by determining the amount of distance traveled and observations of various horizontal, vertical, and stereotyped behaviors are also measured. Anxiety is determined by the pattern of exploration of in the open-field (center versus periphery). The test is sensitive to motor dysfunction as well as hippocampal and basal ganglia damage and is a useful test for initial screening during transgenic phenotyping.

Test Specifics: Rodents are placed in an open field box where activity, discrete movements such as grooming total and rearing as well as distance traveled during exploration are measured for a duration of 5 minutes.

This is the most widely used test to assess sensorimotor coordination and motor overall motor function in rodents. This test is affected by experimental damage to the basal ganglia and cerebellum as well as genetic manipulations and drugs that effect motor function.

Test Specifics: Rodents are placed on a rotating rod in which the speed at which the rod rotates is gradually increased. Latency of the animal to fall of the rotating rod is recorded. This test can be carried out as a single measure or multiple times to determine cerebellar learning.

The purpose of this test is to evaluate the strength of the animal’s limb muscles. This test is useful to detect improvement or deterioration of motor/muscular function associated with injury recovery, degenerative disease models such as ALS, drugs or genetic manipulations to model motor-based/muscular disorders.

Test Specifics: In the grip strength test, the animal’s forelimbs and/or hind limbs are placed on a tension bar while it is restrained by the scruff of the neck and base of the tail. The subject is gently pulled back until it loses its grip from the bar. The distance the animal pulls the bar or holds on to it until it loses its grip is measured in kilograms of resistance by a strain gauge.

The Catwalk system is an automated system used to assess gait disturbances, including the width and length of each foot print, swing and stance duration, and pressure exerted by a paw during locomotion that are associated with various conditions including spinal cord injury, neuropathic pain, muscular diseases, neurological diseases and arthritis. This system can also be used as a screening tool for potential therapeutic drugs and to assess the validity of transgenic mouse models of these diseases.

Test Specifics: The CatWalk consists of an enclosed walkway with glass floor and light sources along the edge. Light enters the glass floor and is internally reflected, except for those places where the animal’s body (typically its paws) makes contact with the floor. Each individual paw contact elicits a separate illuminated area. The video camera located underneath the walkway captures these illuminated areas and sends the video images to the computer running the CatWalk software. The data is then filtered and measurements automatedly calculated. For example, dragging of a limb due to partial paralysis will be imaged as a long, narrow print. The brightness of the illumination caused the pressure exerted on by the paw on the floor can be used to measure neuropathic pain. This system is an automated test based on the BBB scale for muscular recovery but with the advantage that it can measure a wider range of dynamic parameters and therefore may be slightly more sensitive that the BBB scale at the high and low ends of the recovery scale; for more information see: Hammers et al., 2006; Journal of Neurotrauma.

The BMS scale is based on a series of carefully standarized scored observation used to assess gait disturbances that are associated with various conditions including spinal cord injury, neuropathic pain, muscular diseases, neurological diseases and arthritis. Typically, the BMS scale would be used during early stages of spinal chord injury or severe motor dysfunction and the Catwalk would complement these measurements when the changes in gait/motor function are subtle.

Test specifics: The animal is placed on a circular open field and a series of stepping, gait coordination, and posture observations are recorded.

The purpose of this test is to determine the locomotor activity pattern of the animal in its normal habitat without experimenter interference. The test is useful to determine natural or abnormal rhythms of activity/sleep, feeding, and exploration bouts during a 24 hr period.

Test specifics: The animals remain in their home-cage under a tracking system and their activity is automatedly tracked both, during the light and dark cycle. Time spent active/inactive, grooming, rearing and feeding as well as abnormal behaviors such as stereotopy are measured.

This is a test of sensorimotor integration that focuses on hindlimb function. This test is also used as a measure of coordination and balance.

Test specifics: The animals is placed on a brightly lit platform and is allowed to transverse a graded series of narrow beams to reach an enclosed safety box at the end of the beam. Latency to transverse the beam and number of times the hind feet slip off the beam are recorded.

The inclined screen test is a general test for balance, muscle strength and coordination

Test specifics: The animals is placed on the middle of the screen, head down. Latency to turn 180 degrees and climb to the top of the screen and/or latency to fall is recorded. The test is carried out at a 60 and 90 degree incline.