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 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.

The purpose of this test is to measure motor function recovery after spinal cord injury or improvement of motor function after pharmacological treatments in animal models of motor dysfunction such as, ALS, MS, PD etc. This test is based on the BBB scale but is specially designed to detect motor, coordination and gait changes in mice.

Test specifics: The animals are placed in a circular open-field and changes in coordination and gait are carefully observed and scored in a standarized fashion.

The purpose of this test is to determine the level of coordination and balance of rodents. This test is based on the capacity of the rodent to walk from one end of a narrow beam to the other in order to reach a “safe” enclosure.

Test specifics: The animal is placed on one end of a beam and is allowed to walk to the other end to reach an enclosed area. Latency to reach the enclosure or fall is measured. Various trials are carried out using increasingly narrower-sized beams.

The purpose of this test is to evaluate somatosensory dysfunction in rodents. This is most commonly used in animal models of stroke/ischemia.

Test Specifics: The sticky tape test involves placing a small adhesive label onto the animal’s forepaws bilaterally and the time to remove the tape is measured.

The purpose of this test is to evaluate muscle strength/function in rodents.

Test Specifics: In the Inclined screen test the animal is placed on a screen which is inclined at a 60 or 90 degree angle. The time take by the animal to rotate and reach the top of the screen and/or the time taken by the animal to fall of the screen is measured.