Wire hang time

1. Bring the mice from the mouse room into a separate, quiet room.
2. Habituate the mice in the testing room for 30 min. Adjust the light intensity to 150 lx and use a 60 dB background white noise machine during habituation and testing. Make sure the room is equipped with a stop watch, pen/pencil, and paper for documentation.
3. Assess each mouse individually, then return it to the homecage. Constant supervision is needed.
4. Attach a 60 cm wide, 3 mm coated plastic wire suspended 6-12 inches above a plastic-coated foam pad. Make sure the wire is tightly secured by two vertical stands.
5. Handle the mouse by the tail and allow it to grip the wire with its forepaws then its hindpaws.
6. Start the timer.
7. Stop the timer when the mouse falls onto the plastic coated foam pad. If the mice does not fall off during set time limit, record the maximum time for that mouse.
8. Proceed to the next mouse and repeat until each mouse has been tested.

*Note 1: If some of behavioral cohort is tested on different days, make sure to test animals at the same time of day in the same location.

**Note 2: Although we assessed 6-month old mice, it is possible to test mice as young as 4 wks or as old as 20 months. The investigator may need to keep in mind that behavioral (for younger) and motor (for older mice) characteristics of the mice may cofound the results.

***Note 3: Mice were given a maximum of 180 sec on the wire. Longer times (600 sec) may be used to characterize more subtle motor impairments, but this will need to be considered by the investigator on a case-by-case basis.