Development and testing of a new system for assessing wheel-running behaviour in rodents.

BACKGROUND: Wheel running is one of the most widely studied behaviours in laboratory rodents. As a result, improved approaches for the objective monitoring and gathering of more detailed information is increasingly becoming important for evaluating rodent wheel-running behaviour. Here our aim was to develop a new quantitative wheel-running system that can be used for most typical wheel-running experimental protocols. FINDINGS: Here we devise a system that can provide a continuous waveform amenable to real-time integration with a high-speed video ideal for wheel-running experimental protocols. While quantification of wheel running behaviour has typically focused on the number of revolutions per unit time as an end point measure, the approach described here allows for more detailed information like wheel rotation fluidity, directionality, instantaneous velocity, and acceleration, in addition to total number of rotations, and the temporal pattern of wheel-running behaviour to be derived from a single trace. We further tested this system with a running-wheel behavioural paradigm that can be used for investigating the neuronal mechanisms of procedural learning and postural stability, and discuss other potentially useful applications. CONCLUSIONS: This system and its ability to evaluate multiple wheel-running parameters may become a useful tool for screening new potentially important therapeutic compounds related to many neurological conditions.

Linear and angular control of circular walking in healthy older adults and subjects with cerebellar ataxia.

Linear and angular control of trunk and leg motion during curvilinear navigation was investigated in subjects with cerebellar ataxia and age-matched control subjects. Subjects walked with eyes open around a 1.2-m circle. The relationship of linear to angular motion was quantified by determining the ratios of trunk linear velocity to trunk angular velocity and foot linear position to foot angular position. Errors in walking radius (the ratio of linear to angular motion) also were quantified continuously during the circular walk. Relative variability of linear and angular measures was compared using coefficients of variation (CoV). Patterns of variability were compared using power spectral analysis for the trunk and auto-covariance analysis for the feet. Errors in radius were significantly increased in patients with cerebellar damage as compared to controls. Cerebellar subjects had significantly larger CoV of feet and trunk in angular, but not linear, motion. Control subjects also showed larger CoV in angular compared to linear motion of the feet and trunk. Angular and linear components of stepping differed in that angular, but not linear, foot placement had a negative correlation from one stride to the next. Thus, walking in a circle was associated with more, and a different type of, variability in angular compared to linear motion. Results are consistent with increased difficulty of, and role of the cerebellum in, control of angular trunk and foot motion for curvilinear locomotion.

Does the cerebellum play a role in podokinetic adaptation?

After sustained stepping in-place on a rotating disc, healthy subjects will inadvertently turn in circles when asked to step in-place on a stationary surface with eyes closed. We asked whether the cerebellum is important for this adaptive phenomenon, called podokinetic after-rotation (PKAR). Subjects with cerebellar degeneration and age-matched control subjects performed 15 min of stepping in-place with eyes open on a rotating disc, then 30 min of attempting to step in-place with eyes closed on a stationary surface. Rotational velocity of PKAR was measured during this 30-min period. All control subjects demonstrated PKAR; average initial rotational velocity for control subjects was 16.4+/-3.5 degrees /s. Five of the eight cerebellar subjects demonstrated impaired PK adaptation, defined as PKAR with an initial velocity more than two standard deviations below the control mean initial velocity. Average initial rotational velocity for cerebellar subjects was 7.8+/-0.2 degrees /s. Impaired PK adaptation was not associated with impaired time constants of decay and was not correlated with variability of PKAR velocity. Our results suggest that the cerebellum is important for regulation of the amplitude of PK adaptation and that reduced PKAR amplitude is not likely the result of dyscoordination or variability of movement in the subjects tested.