Rodent gait analysis for mice and rats
ConductVision measures how mice and rats walk, giving you stride, timing and paw placement for each paw, and coordination between limbs, from crossings they make on their own.
Buy the complete GaitMaster walkway system, or add gait analysis to ConductVision and film your own clear walkway.
What you get
A result for each paw
Stride length, stance and swing time, and duty factor, worked out separately for each paw.
Symmetry and coordination
Left and right compared, plus how the front and back limbs time their steps.
Voluntary walking
Animals walk the length of the walkway at their own speed.
Data export
Results export as CSV and PDF.
Choose your setup
The complete GaitMaster system
A lit glass walkway, high-speed camera, green side lights, red top light and software license, with onboarding and training.
$29,500 for mice or $30,500 for rats.
Software for your own walkway
The Advanced Rodent Module adds gait analysis to ConductVision. Film the paws from below, through a clear walkway or treadmill. It needs a ConductVision license, sold separately.
$1,990 per year or $3,990 for five years, on top of a ConductVision license at $1,490 per year or $3,990 for five years.
Ink footprints on paper
The Gait Test runway records paw prints in ink, and you measure them by hand.
From $1,890.
What it measures
ConductVision follows the animal through each crossing, then reports the measures below.
Stride and timing
- Stride length
- Distance from one strike of a paw to the next strike of the same paw.
- Stance time
- How long each limb stays on the ground in each stride.
- Swing time
- How long each limb is in the air between stance phases.
- Duty factor
- Stance time as a share of stride time, also called duty cycle.
- Stride duration
- Time for one complete stride.
- Stride frequency
- Strides per second for each limb.
- Step length
- Distance from one paw strike to the next strike of the opposite paw.
- Swing speed
- How fast the paw moves during the swing phase.
- Stance to swing ratio
- Time in stance compared with time in swing.
- Walking speed
- How fast the animal crosses, which you need when comparing groups.
Paw placement and prints
- Base of support
- Distance between the left and right paws during stance.
- Step width
- Side-to-side distance between limbs, across the direction of travel.
- Paw placement variability
- How much paw position changes from stride to stride.
- Paw angle
- Angle of the paw to the body axis as stance begins.
- Print area, length and width
- The size of each paw print on the walkway.
- Toe spread
- How far the toes open on each footfall.
- Print intensity
- How bright each paw print is during stance, a stand-in for paw pressure.
Symmetry and coordination
- Stride symmetry
- Left and right timing compared across matching limbs.
- Stride length asymmetry
- The difference between left and right stride length.
- Temporal symmetry
- Timing differences between right and left strikes within a cycle.
- Limb phase
- Timing between the front and back limb on the same side.
- Phase difference
- Timing offset between limb pairs, in degrees.
- Regularity index
- How regularly the limbs follow a step pattern.
- Step sequence pattern
- The order in which the paws land.
Body and tail
- Head and body alignment
- Angle between the head and the body axis as the animal walks.
- Body axis deviation
- How far the body axis turns from the direction of travel.
- Tail movement
- How the tail moves relative to the body center as the animal walks.
Set up a clean recording
The GaitMaster sizes and camera, and what we suggest for each session.
- Walkway for mice
- 105 cm long, 10 cm wide and 10 cm high
- Walkway for rats
- 130 cm long, 10 cm wide and 10 cm high
- Camera
- High-speed, at 120 frames per second and 1080p
- Lighting
- Green side lights and a red top light, so each paw strike shows
- Getting animals ready
- Let them get used to the walkway surface and lighting first
- Crossings
- 3 to 5 clean, voluntary crossings per animal
- Between animals
- Wipe the walkway with 70% ethanol to remove odor cues
- Comparing groups
- Match or report walking speed, because most gait measures change with speed
What a change in gait can point to
Shorter strides
Seen with pain-related guarding, joint or muscle injury, and Parkinsonian motor decline. Compare at matched speed.
Longer stance, higher duty factor
Compensatory weight bearing.
Shorter stance, lower duty factor
Can reflect pain avoidance.
Left-right asymmetry
Points to a one-sided problem, such as lateralized pain, stroke, hemisection or peripheral nerve injury.
A wider stance
A stability strategy seen in cerebellar ataxia, vestibular dysfunction and spinal cord injury.
Slower swing
Can reflect motor neuron impairment, peripheral neuropathy or musculoskeletal injury.
Less coordinated limbs
Timing between the forelimbs and hindlimbs breaks down after spinal or supraspinal lesions.
Smaller paw prints
Less print area and toe spread can reflect guarding or peripheral neuropathy.
Where gait analysis is used
Pain and joints
- Osteoarthritis
- Neuropathic pain, alongside von Frey thresholds
- Fracture healing and weight bearing over time
Injury to the nervous system
- Spinal cord injury and recovery
- Stroke
- Traumatic brain injury
- Peripheral nerve injury and reinnervation
Neurodegeneration and aging
- Parkinson's disease models, such as 6-OHDA, MPTP and alpha-synuclein
- Huntington's disease models, such as R6/2 and knock-in
- ALS
- Age-related motor decline
Drug and toxicity studies
- Drug-induced ataxia and motor slowing
- Chemotherapy-induced and diabetic neuropathy
- Screens that target motor function
Watch a gait analysis run
ConductVision GaitMaster
How the GaitMaster turns a crossing into gait measurements.
The points it follows on a rodent
The body points ConductVision uses to measure gait from video.
Questions
- Can ConductVision measure gait in mice and rats?
- Yes, with the GaitMaster system or the Advanced Rodent Module. It measures stride, timing, paw placement, symmetry and limb coordination for mice and rats as they cross a walkway.
- Do animals need to walk on a treadmill?
- No. Animals cross the walkway at their own speed. If your lab already uses a clear treadmill, the software can analyze that video too.
- Can I use my own walkway?
- Yes. Add the Advanced Rodent Module to a ConductVision license, then film the paws from below through your clear walkway.
- How much does a rodent gait analysis system cost?
- The GaitMaster system costs $29,500 for mice or $30,500 for rats, with the walkway, camera, lights, software license and training included.
- What files do I get?
- You get CSV and PDF files, so you can run statistics across groups and time points.
- How many crossings does each animal need?
- Aim for 3 to 5 clean, voluntary crossings per animal.
More on rodent movement
Send a frame from your walkway video and what you want to measure
We will tell you which setup fits before you ask for a quote.
