Infra-red sensors for measuring spontaneous activity within rat cages
Published: 7 October 2014
A system of infra-red sensors was designed to record the activity of rats in their home cages.
A system of infra-red sensors was designed to record the activity of rats in their home cages. Each sensor is mounted above an individual rat cage and can record its spontaneous activity continually over time.
In this project the cages were housed in a light-tight chamber in which the light/dark cycle can be controlled. The output from the individual sensors was fed out of the chamber into a computer running Clocklab software. The project was designed to assess the effects of protracted changes in light/dark cycles that mimic shift-work patterns.
Under a normal 12:12 light dark cycle rodents are most active during the dark phase, but this activity pattern becomes desynchronised when the light dark cycle is phase advanced. The system therefore allows monitoring of the activity patterns in relation to the light dark cycle, and provides us with confirmation that modification of the light/dark cycle induces biological rhythm desynchrony.
The sensor system could be used for other types of project in which spontaneous activity within a rodent’s home cage is an intended measure, e.g. after drug administration, injury, genetic modification.
First published: 7 October 2014