24-Hour Home Cage Activity Monitoring in Mice

Protocol Steps

1. 1
   Place mice in cages

   Place mice individually in 20 x 30 cm 2 transparent cages located between the photo beams.

2. 2
   Start recording and verify system

   Start the activity recording software around noon (12:00). Confirm beam-break counts reset every 30 min. Verify that the 30-min bin intervals are logging correctly. Recording should begin during the light phase so that one full light and one full dark phase are captured in the 24 h window.

3. 3
   Allow automated lighting cycle

   Allow automated lighting to switch: lights OFF at 19:00 (onset of dark/active phase) and ON again at 07:00 the following morning.

4. 4
   Stop recording and export raw data

   After 24 h of continuous recording, stop data acquisition and export beam-break counts per 30-min bin for each animal.

5. 5
   Analyze activity data

   Export counts per bin per animal. Group into light-phase (07:00–19:00) and dark-phase (19:00–07:00) totals. Apply appropriate statistical tests (e.g., two-way ANOVA with genotype × phase as factors). Mice are nocturnal; the majority of activity is expected during the dark phase. Total beam crossings in the dark phase should substantially exceed those in the light phase in healthy controls.

Materials & Reagents

Citation