Kinematics and Ground Reaction Force Determination: A Demonstration Quantifying Locomotor Abilities of Young Adult, Middle-aged, and Geriatric Rats

Abstract

Behavior, in its broadest definition, can be defined as the motor manifestation of physiologic processes. As such, all behaviors manifest through the motor system. In the fields of neuroscience and orthopedics, locomotion is a commonly evaluated behavior for a variety of disease models. For example, locomotor recovery after traumatic injury to the nervous system is one of the most commonly evaluated behaviors [1][2][3] . Though locomotion can be evaluated using a variety of endpoint measurements (e.g. time taken to complete a locomotor task, etc), semiquantitative kinematic measures (e.g. ordinal rating scales (e.g. Basso Beattie and Bresnahan locomotor (BBB) rating scale, etc)) and surrogate measures of behaviour (e.g. muscle force, nerve conduction velocity, etc), only kinetics (force measurements) and kinematics (measurements of body segments in space) provide a detailed description of the strategy by which an animal is able to locomote 1 . Though not new, kinematic and kinetic measurements of locomoting rodents is now more readily accessible due to the availability of commercially available equipment designed for this purpose. Importantly, however, experimenters need to be very familiar with theory of biomechanical analyses and understand the benefits and limitations of these forms of analyses prior to embarking on what will become a relatively labor-intensive study. The present paper aims to describe a method for collecting kinematic and ground reaction force data using commercially available equipment. Details of equipment and apparatus set-up, pre-training of animals, inclusion and exclusion criteria of acceptable runs, and methods for collecting the data are described. We illustrate the utility of this behavioral analysis technique by describing the kinematics and kinetics of strain-matched young adult, middleaged, and geriatric rats.

Locomotion-Related Oscillatory Body Movements at 6–12 Hz Modulate the Hippocampal Theta Rhythm

“…This running speed range was consistently reached over a large portion of the maze (Fig. 1A–C), in agreement with other studies using similar behavioral settings [21]–[25], and was associated with trotting (not shown), as expected from kinematic studies of rat locomotion [25]. We next performed a power spectrum analysis of the acceleration signal during slow (speed<10 cm/s), intermediate (10–50 cm/s) and fast running speeds (50–110 cm/s).…”

Gait Analysis Methods for Rodent Models of Osteoarthritis

“…Noxious light may also be used to prompt movement [74], though its effects on gait selection in rodents are currently unknown. Similarly, the effects of a positive cue on gait sequences, such as food reward or return to a home cage [75], are largely unknown, and it is not yet clear whether positive cues will alter the sensitivity of gait compensations relative to voluntary exploration.…”

“…As in humans, skin markers have been used to describe the 3-D motion of a rat [75, 78]. These markers are used to approximate kinematic variables such as joint position and joint angles.…”

Ground reaction forces are more sensitive gait measures than temporal parameters in rodents following rotator cuff injury

“…Several studies that report changes in temporal parameters following injury only compare to a pre-surgical baseline or uninjured control group, suggesting that these measures are sensitive enough to detect differences above a given functional threshold (Giszter et al, 2008; Hampton et al, 2011; Vrinten and Hamers, 2003). The decreased sensitivity of temporal gait parameters may lead investigators to conclude that there is no effect of a treatment when a difference does indeed exist but cannot be detected (type-II statistical error) (Webb et al, 2011). Interestingly, Kale et al demonstrated a dose-dependent functional response to ethanol in mice with respect to stance, propulsion, and braking times, indicating that analysis of temporal parameters alone may be adequately sensitive for some applications (Kale et al, 2004).…”