title: Sensing platform for acoustic startle responses from rat forelimbs and hindlimbs.
abstract: A sensing platform with two piezoelectric transducers was designed and fabricated to measure acoustic startle responses from forelimbs and hindlimbs in the rat. Testing with a vibrator showed that separate forces were measured from 5 to 25 Hz with mean sensitivities of 2.395 and 2.022 V/N and mean linearity errors of 3.23 and 2.98% FS for the forelimb and hindlimb sensors, respectively. Forelimb and hindlimb response waveforms of male Sprague-Dawley rats had shapes similar to the commonly recorded wholebody response but were smaller in amplitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston 71272, USA. rseaman@rfr.brooks.af.mil
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Seaman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D005552:Forelimb / Q000502:physiology*; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011312:Pressure; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013499:Surface Properties; D014159:Transducers; D014732:Vibration