title: Development and testing of a new system for assessing wheel-running behaviour in rodents.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Experimental Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330, Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada. tgchomia@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Taylor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chomiak
authors.affiliation: Division of Experimental Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330, Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada.
authors.forename: Edward W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Block
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada.
authors.forename: G Campbell
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Teskey
authors.affiliation: Division of Experimental Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330, Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada. hub@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
keywords: Learning; Motor; Procedural; Rodent; Running; Skill; Wheel