A REVOLVING FOOD PELLET TEST FOR MEASURING SENSORIMOTOR PERFORMANCE IN RATS

A revolving food pellet (RFP) test is presented, measuring the ability of rats to eat food pellets suspended from a horizontal bar in their home cage. This easy to make and economical device evaluates the effic iency of bilateral front paw coordination while standing. During the b eginning of a ten day testing period, rats exposed to the RFP chamber had a lower intake of food and decreased body weight than rats housed in a standard home cage. With continued practice, the experimental gro up increased their food intake and body weight. During this time, the rats learned to control the revolving pellets by stabilizing them with their front paws and chewing on them. This apparatus is suitable for assessing a form of sensorimotor learning, involving the efficiency of front paw reaching, grasping, and holding movements, together with ap propriate postural adjustments and biting movements. This test was sen sitive to brain lesioning, as rats with bilateral lesions of the cereb ellar fastigial nucleus were impaired. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.