Actimetry for marmosets
P.C. Pearce, T.M. Mann, K.E. Williams, A. Smith and E.A.M. Scott
Biomedical Sciences, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory, Chemical and Biological Sciences, Salisbury, United Kingdom
Assessment of spontaneous activity in laboratory species is an important feature of preclinical behavioral screening. The available methodologies for monitoring such activity are diverse in terms of their complexity and level of sophistication.
Activity monitoring in human subjects by means of wrist-worn devices is widely used in clinical research and patient care. Superficially positioned piezoelectric accelerometers have previously been developed in this laboratory to assess the effects of cholinesterase inhibitors on spontaneous activity in marmosets [1].
More recently, studies have been carried out to evaluate technology devised for humans in the marmoset. Thus, 24-h recordings over up to 21 days were made using ‘Mini-Actiwatch’ devices (Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd.), worn as a pendant attached to a standard collar. Figure 1 shows a typical activity profile.
Figure 1. A typical 24-hour activity pattern for a marmoset.
Hitherto, technical limitations have necessitated the use of time-consuming video analysis as an adjunct to single channel EEG recording for characterising sleep patterns in marmosets. Assessment of actimetry data suggests a good correlation (<3% chance of there being a disagreement between the video and the Mini-Actiwatch) to aid differentiation between REM sleep and waking states. We believe that this approach offers considerable potential for monitoring the circadian patterns of spontaneous activity in laboratory species.
References
Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2002 , 4th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 27-30 August 2002, Amsterdam, The Netherlands