Motimeter
Motimeter is a device
capable of recording and analyzing motor activity
of laboratory rodents, especially of rats. Due to
its special design, it differs from other instruments
since precisely detects rearing and jumping, differentiates
local movement from propagation, and is also able
to analyze spacial distribution of the movements.
The device detects movements with an extremely fine
resolution (16 mm) infra LED spacial array. This
device is suitable for real-time studying of motor
patterns, spacial movement distributions and special
movements (e.g. jumping) in 3 dimensions with considerable
resolution in space and time.
Real-time display
of animal movement.
The DSP based microcomputer
specially designed for this particular application
is used to control the infra spacial array. Movements
are detected and analized in real-time with max.
100-msec time resolution. Data are transferred to
the host PC through an RS-232 serial link. Besides
the fine resolution movement detection the DSP unit
is also able to provide foot-shocks. In this way
behavioral changes evoked by the shock could be
directly and automatically recorded. Short- and
long-term consequences of a shock can be tracked,
stimulus thresholds can be determined, phenomena
like learned helplessness, place-preference and
place-avoidance, etc. can be studied. The device
is also suitable to study changes of pain-threshold
an pain-tolerance. Shock sequence is programmable.
Variables recorded
by the Motimeter are ambulation (walking, running),
local movements, rearing, jumping, immobility. The
program records the number and total time of each
variable and calculates the mean time of each element,
too. For ambulation the mean velocity is also calculated.
The box can be virtually divided into zones (from
2x2 to 10x10); in this case time spent in each zone
and the number of crossing the border are also recorded.
The graphical user
interface running on the host PC provides a variety
of services. The program can perfectly handle 1
to 8 boxes simultaneously. Experimental setup programming
is starightforward, all the parameters and variables
can be set on-screen within a wide range and with
high degree of flexibility. Besides the built-in
off-line analyzing feature, recorded data can also
be exported in a form accepted by most commercial
analysing and data-processing programs. A special
feature is the separate on-screen graphical display
of the movement of each animal.
Motimeter has been
developed in cooperation with Experimetria Ltd.,
the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology of
the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, the Laboratory
of CNS-Pharmacology of the EGIS Pharmaceutical Co.,
and the Department of Behavioral Pharmacology of
the Gedeon Richter Pharmaceutical Co. Our company
has provided the complete system specification,
hardware design, development of the measuring algorithms
and DSP programming.
