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Quantification of gait parameters in freely walking rodents

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Biology, July 2015
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Title
Quantification of gait parameters in freely walking rodents
Published in
BMC Biology, July 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12915-015-0154-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

César S. Mendes, Imre Bartos, Zsuzsanna Márka, Turgay Akay, Szabolcs Márka, Richard S. Mann

Abstract

Qualitative and quantitative measurements of motor performance are essential for characterizing perturbations of motor systems. Although several methods exist for analyzing specific motor tasks, few behavioral assays are readily available to researchers that provide a complete set of kinematic parameters in rodents. Here we present MouseWalker, an integrated hardware and software system that provides a comprehensive and quantitative description of kinematic features in freely walking rodents. Footprints are visualized with high spatial and temporal resolution by a non-invasive optical touch sensor coupled to high-speed imaging. A freely available and open-source software package tracks footprints and body features to generate a comprehensive description of many locomotion features, including static parameters such as footprint position and stance patterns and dynamic parameters, such as step and swing cycle duration, and inter-leg coordination. Using this method, we describe walking by wild-type mice including several previously undescribed parameters. For example, we demonstrate that footprint touchdown occurs instantaneously by the entire paw with no obvious rostral-caudal or lateral-medial bias. The readily available MouseWalker system and the large set of readouts it generates greatly increases the currently available toolkit for the analysis of wild type and aberrant locomotion in rodents.

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Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 178 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 2 1%
Portugal 2 1%
Finland 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Unknown 172 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 37 21%
Student > Ph. D. Student 34 19%
Student > Bachelor 20 11%
Student > Master 15 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 10 6%
Other 26 15%
Unknown 36 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Neuroscience 49 28%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 29 16%
Engineering 17 10%
Medicine and Dentistry 12 7%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 5%
Other 21 12%
Unknown 41 23%