Pink-Eyeed Sprague Dawley Rats: Video Analysis

After thirteen weeks of recording the pink-eyed Sprague Dawley rats walking across an elevated horizontal ladder, a circular ladder and a treadmill, I now spend most days carefully examining the videos to evaluate the quality of their walking ability.
The video begins, as it always does, at an angle below the ladder. The rat appears in the frame, roaming around, to acclimatize with the environment and probably search for its missing cage mate. Rats are social animals and enjoy being in groups. As it moves around the unfamiliar home cage, it discovers the ladder that led to its cage mate the day before. Without hesitation, the animal rears and hops onto the ladder to begin its scurrying across the elevated beam to the other side where the cage mate and Froot Loops wait as a reward. …show more content…
This is especially fascinating because the field of neurology, particularly in relation to movement, has always roused my curiosity. The notion that specific therapies can lead to recovery of movement, even after severe paralysis is an inspiring concept. The rat in the video is able to walk across a flat surface with barely discernable deficits 60 days after injury displaying the spontaneous recovery that occurs after injury and the therapeutic effects of rehabilitative step