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Bioseb as developped a really simple to use and miniature actimetry system, including exhaustive functions to quantify rodent activity, with a very competitive pricing for your short and long term experiments and phenotyping on mouse and rat. The ActiV-Meter actimetry activity measurement system allows the assessment of the rodent's activity in its familiar environment in the Home Cage, and it can also be used in any other kind of environment (open field, etc ...)

How does it work?

Very different from other techniques, our new actimeter "ActiV-Meter" does not require any kind of surgical implantation on the animal (mouse or rat), does not involve any kind of modification to the home cage, and is not disturbed by any change (like litter movements) in the cage environment. Unlike other actimeter systems like the Infra-red beams and the video image analysis monitoring, which are really not usable with litter, not very accurate in spatial definition and which cannot detect small movements and subtle behaviors as for example the “tremor”, the ActiV-Meter is using an actimetry technique close to the force based actometers, but does not imply the use of specific cages and algorithms which make them very expensive to set up and use on a day to day practice.

Benefits

The originality of the ActiV-Meter from Bioseb lies in its ability to quantify 3 parameters of animal behaviour: Movement / Motionless Activity (including tremor) / Immobility. Among other advantages, this actimeter is characterized by its ease of use, the fact that the activity measurement can take place in the Home Cage as well as in Open Field, and that the animal, mouse or rat, is unrestrained during the experience. Using food and a bottle, activity measurement experiences can be conducted on a very long span of time.
The operator can define his own immobility standard as well as the thresholds between slow motion and fast motion. During the actimetry experience, the operator can see on the screen the real time activity type, the position and motion and the parameters measured during each sampling period for each animal (mouse or rat). The operator can also marks special behaviours using a notepad and keyboard shortcuts. Raw acquisition data files are stored in a proprietary format to meet GLP standards, while a .txt version can be used for further activity analysis.
All of this at a fraction of the usual price of other actimeter systems and with a much easier setup.

Measured Parameters

Results can be used directly in MS Excel or in .txt format - measured parameters are:

• Immobility time (for example during sleeping), defined with a threshold,
  
• Motionless activity duration (for example while the animal is eating or scratching)
  - Animal movement: distance (meters) and duration, possibility to distinguish between slow motion and fast motion
  
• Rearing can be detected with an optional equipment especially useful when wrkin in an open field
  
• Important notice: the actimeter system is able to measure movements while the animal is hanging under the grid covering the cage, which is a normal behaviour especially by mice.
  
  
  BIO-ACTIV Software for actimetry data acquisition and data replay
  
  !New! Publication:
  
  EB-Instruments team presents its respectful thanks to research teams of Prof. David (Université Paris-Sud) and Prof. Samuels (Columbia University, New York), who used the Activ_Meter (Actimeter for Rodents) during their recent studies:
  
  Behavioral Effects of Fluoxetine in an Animal Model of Anxiety/Depression Are Mediated by Both Neurogenesis-Dependent and -Independent Mechanisms, by DJ. David, BA. Samuels, Q. Rainer, JW. Wang et al., in Neuron, 62, 2009
  (Click here to download this article as a PDF file)