Beam walking test

To assess impaired gait and balance, the beam walking test was performed as previously described (Goldstein and Davis, 1990). The animals had to travel along a horizontal round beam with a length of 1 m and a diameter of 1.3 cm. The mice received three trainings using a beam with a diameter of 2.5 cm and three test trials on the same day. One trial was completed when the animal reached the platform at the end of the beam or 1 min expired. The number of foot slips (number of slips), the total forward distance, and time traversing the beam were recorded. For scoring the performance, animals performed well when they finished all trials without any problems. When animals fell off in one or two trials, the trial was classified as intermediate. Animals that immediately fell off the beam in all trials or animals that were unable to grab the beam failed the task.