Rotarod Motor Coordination Test
Objective: Assessment of motor coordination and balance deficits in mice using a rotating rod that accelerates from 4-40 rpm over 5 minutes
This is a Rotarod Motor Coordination Test protocol using mouse as the model organism. The procedure involves 5 procedural steps, 2 equipment items. Extracted from a 2016 paper published in Nature.
Model and subjects
mouse • C57BL/6J • male • Adult mice tested at least 6 weeks after treatment (2-4.5 months at treatment initiation) • Not specified
Study window
~2.1 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Animal placement on rotarod • Rod acceleration • Multiple trial administration
Primary readouts
- Latency to fall (time animal remains on rotating rod before falling)
- Motor coordination performance across three trials
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Animal placement on rotarod
Place animal on the rotarod apparatus
Note: Animals were placed on the rotating rod at the start of each trial
View evidence from paper
“Animals were placed on a rotarod apparatus (Med Associates) that accelerates 4–40 rpm for 5 minutes.”
Rod acceleration
The rotarod accelerates from 4 rpm to 40 rpm over the course of the test
Note: Continuous acceleration throughout the 5-minute trial
View evidence from paper
“Animals were placed on a rotarod apparatus (Med Associates) that accelerates 4–40 rpm for 5 minutes.”
Multiple trial administration
Each animal is tested for three separate trials with rest intervals between trials
Note: All three trials conducted in a single day
View evidence from paper
“Each animal was tested for three trials with 1–2 hours between trials in a single day.”
Video recording
All rotarod trials are videotaped for subsequent analysis
Note: Video recording enables manual analysis of latency to fall
View evidence from paper
“All trials were videotaped.”
Latency to fall analysis
An observer blinded to genotype manually analyzes video recordings to determine latency to fall for each trial using Noldus Observer software
Note: Observer must be blinded to genotype during analysis. Manual analysis performed on recorded videos.
View evidence from paper
“Latency to fall was manually analyzed for each trial on Noldus Observer by an observer”