A simple method for recording the path of a rat in an open field

Abstract

A method for recording the path of a rat during exploration or during a search task in an open field is presented. Its principle relies on the monitoring of the center of gravity of the rat. The open field lies on three strain gauges, on which output signals are sampled at a certain frequency by a digital acquisition system while the rat is walking on the platform. The discrete path is reconstructed off line, and several representative parameters are calculated. Some illustrative results are given.

Accuracy and reliability of a videogrammetry system in the analysis of displacement of Wistar rats

“…The analysis by videogrammetry allows storage of information and analyze the behavior of several rats allocated in the same environment, which is not possible to do with the methods applied in previous studies, such as ultrasonic activity monitor 2 , electronic device 3 , calculation of the position of the center of gravity on the ground 4 , and infra-red detection 5 . In those studies cited above, the rat is evaluated in isolation, without interaction with others animals.…”

“…Although the situations of analysis of the above studies are different, displacement in soccer field, movement of human body segments and, of the present study, with rat displacement, in all situations the use of Dvideo software presented accuracy. Specifically, in the studies on displacement analysis in the experimental model with rats, to our knowledge, no study presented the accuracy and reliability of the measure in its different methods, such as an ultrasonic activity monitor 2 , electronic device 3 , calculation of the position of the center of gravity on the ground 4 , and infrared detection 5 . Therefore, the comparison of our results with results from other studies with animal is limited.…”

“…Different methods have been used for the analysis of displacement, such as an ultrasonic activity monitor 2 , electronic device 3 , calculation of the position of the center of gravity on the ground 4 , and infrared detection 5 . However, these methods present limitations to analyze the behavior of animals in a group, or interacting with each other.…”

The EthoVision video tracking system—A tool for behavioral phenotyping of transgenic mice

“…Early systems, using hard-wired electronics, were only able to track a single animal in highly artificial environments. For example, an open field can be sampled with a grid of infrared beams either as the sole detectors [3][4][5] or in combination with other methods such as placing a series of strain gauge transducers under the arena to estimate the animal's position [6]. The magnitude of an animal's motion can also be estimated using various types of touch-sensitive sensors ranging from a crude estimate of movement by placing the animal on a bass loudspeaker and monitoring the loudspeaker's electrical output when its cone was moved by the rat [7], or measuring the movement of a mouse's wheel by attaching the wheel's axle in place of the ball of a computer mouse [8], to sensors that can also measure the position of the animal (and hence locomotion), for instance by changes in the capacitance of a plate when the animal is in proximity to it [9], or changes in body resistance [10].…”

Classification of rat behavior with an image-processing method and a neural network

“…From the early days of behavioral research, methods were developed that allowed automated quantification of behavior, such as capacitance measuring devices (Stoff, Stauderman, & Wyatt, 1983;Tomkins & O'Donovan, 1981), infrared beams and photobeam detectors (Delbarre, Dumas, & Guionniere, 1970;Makanjuola, Hill, Maben, Dow, & Ashcroft, 1977), Doppler shift radar (Marsden & King, 1979), touch panels (Kao, Shaw, Young, & Jan, 1995), and weight gauges (Gapenne, Simon, & Lannou, 1990;Schlingmann, van de Weerd, Baumans, Remie, & van Zutphen, 1998). In recent years, the use of imageprocessing hardware and software for behavior registration has gained popularity.…”