Fig. 5.

Open field and rotarod test. (A) In the rotarod assay, female mice (7–8 months old) (wt: n = 5; tg: n = 7) trained as described in the experimental procedures section, were tested at increasing speeds in a rotarod apparatus and the number of cumulative falls within 1 min was recorded. No significant differences were observed between tg mice and wt littermates. For the open field test (B–F), female tg mice of the line tg4717 (n = 9) and wt littermates (n = 7) (7–8 months of age) were monitored in an open field box (area: 44 × 44 cm) for 12 h during the dark period of the 12 h/12 h light/dark cycle. Data analysis indicated no significant differences in the total activity (distance traveled) (B), average velocity (C), resting time, sterotypic time, ambulatory time or time spent in the center of the test area (D). In contrast, rearing activity, measured as vertical time (E; *P = 0.0019) and vertical counts (F; *P = 0.0035) showed a significant effect of genotype (ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni test), with a strong reduction of activity in tg mice. All data shown are the mean ± SEM.