Assessing Velocity Differences between Parkinson’s Disease and Wild Type Saline-Injected Rats on a Moderately Elevated Ladder with a Damaged Rung

This study investigates the impact of Parkinson's disease on the velocity of rats during a ladder experiment compared to their Wild Type (WT) counterparts. It utilizes a moderately elevated ladder set at an 11-degree angle, which contains a damaged rung that breaks away in the middle of the ladder. This ladder is separated into four different quadrants, and there are three hypotheses. The first hypothesis predicts significant differences in velocity between Parkinson’s rats and WT rats. The second hypothesis anticipates that Parkinson’s rats will take longer than WT rats in quadrant 2 due to increased instability from a damaged rung. The third hypothesis states that Parkinson’s rats will spend more time than WT rats in quadrant 3 immediately after the damaged rung has broken away. This study involved 12 rats, divided evenly into Parkinson’s and Wild Type conditions. Data was recorded using the GoPro HERO3, and the video footage was used to analyze the time spent for each rat in each ladder quadrant. After conducting several ANOVA analyses, the analysis revealed statistically significant results for two of the three hypotheses. There was a statistically significant velocity difference between Parkinson’s rats and WT rats, and Parkinson’s rats did spend a statistically significant longer time in quadrant 2 compared to WT rats. However, the differences in duration in quadrant 3 for Parkinson’s rats compared to WT rats were not statistically significant. A potential implication of these findings is that the observed differences in velocity and behavior between Parkinson's rats and WT rats in the ladder experiment may correspond to aspects of motor impairment and instability characteristic of Parkinson's disease in humans. This may suggest that the ladder task for rats can be a useful model for assessing motor deficits associated with Parkinson's disease in preclinical research settings. This study helps make contributions to the field of Parkinson’s disease by revealing insights that can inform future experiments and by improving our understanding of the condition.