MouseMove: an open source program for semi-automated analysis of movement and cognitive testing in rodents.

Andre L Samson,Shenpeng R Zhang,Christopher G Sobey,Sharelle A Sturgeon,Simone M Schoenwaelder,Lining Ju,Shaun P Jackson,Jessica A A Lee,Hyun Ah Kim

doi:10.1038/srep16171

Abstract

The Open Field (OF) test is one of the most commonly used assays for assessing exploratory behaviour and generalised locomotor activity in rodents. Nevertheless, the vast majority of researchers still rely upon costly commercial systems for recording and analysing OF test results. Consequently, our aim was to design a freely available program for analysing the OF test and to provide an accompanying protocol that was minimally invasive, rapid, unbiased, without the need for specialised equipment or training. Similar to commercial systems, we show that our software—called MouseMove—accurately quantifies numerous parameters of movement including travel distance, speed, turning and curvature. To assess its utility, we used MouseMove to quantify unilateral locomotor deficits in mice following the filament-induced middle cerebral artery occlusion model of acute ischemic stroke. MouseMove can also monitor movement within defined regions-of-interest and is therefore suitable for analysing the Novel Object Recognition test and other field-related cognitive tests. To the best of our knowledge, MouseMove is the first open source software capable of providing qualitative and quantitative information on mouse locomotion in a semi-automated and high-throughput fashion, and hence MouseMove represents a sound alternative to commercial movement analysis systems.

Highlights

® USA), Ethovision XT (Noldus; Wageningen, The Netherlands), TopScan (Clever Sys Inc.; VA, USA), and Opto-Varimex (Columbus Instruments; OH, USA)
Using a model of acquired brain injury, which is well known to cause altered locomotion[14,15], we show that MouseMove can discern both quantitative and qualitative differences in movement across an Open Field (OF)
We found that MouseMove quantified movement parameters such as distanced travelled, speed and curvature radius with > 96% accuracy (Fig. 3c)

Summary

Introduction

® USA), Ethovision XT (Noldus; Wageningen, The Netherlands), TopScan (Clever Sys Inc.; VA, USA), and Opto-Varimex (Columbus Instruments; OH, USA) While these commercial systems are excellent in their recording and analytical capability, they are relatively expensive, offer little methodological transparency or flexibility and often restrict OF testing to laboratories with the financial means to establish specialised behavioural suites. The most recent freeware, EthoWatcher, represents a significant improvement in that it allows users to analyse a wider array of rodent movement parameters such as grooming and rearing behaviours[13]. This being said, many other routine aspects of movement, including stationary fraction, object speed, laterality differences or ROI time, in combination with capacity for batch analysis, are currently not addressed by existing programs. MouseMove represents a sound and freely available alternative to commercial platforms for analysing arena-related assays such as the OF test and the NOR test

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