What is the Activity Cage?

The Ugo Basile Activity Cage (catalog number 47420/47420-NC) is an automated system for recording spontaneous locomotor activity in individual mice or rats using infrared (I.R.) photocell beam interruption. Horizontal locomotion and vertical rearing are captured simultaneously, providing a multi-dimensional picture of the animal’s spontaneous motor behaviour without requiring video tracking.

Up to six Activity Cages can be connected to a single electronic unit, making the system suitable for high-throughput pharmacological screening, toxicology assessments, and longitudinal habituation studies. Data is recorded in GLP-compliant embedded memory and can be exported to a PC for analysis or directly fed to compatible video-tracking software such as ANY-maze.

Key Features

• Dual-Axis IR Photocell Arrays: Two independent arrays of infrared photocells capture horizontal locomotion and vertical rearing separately, providing richer behavioural data than single-axis systems.
• Adjustable Photocell Height: The same instrument accommodates both mice and rats by adjusting the height of the photocell arrays, eliminating the need for separate housings.
• Up to 6 Cages per Unit: A single electronic controller manages up to six cages simultaneously, dramatically reducing equipment costs for high-throughput studies.
• GLP-Compliant Embedded Memory: All data is stored internally with timestamps, ensuring traceability and compliance with regulatory data integrity requirements.
• ANY-maze Compatible: Direct integration with ANY-maze video tracking software provides access to XY position, speed, and zone-based analysis in addition to the beam-break counts.
• Standalone or PC-Connected: The system operates independently with a built-in display or connects to a PC via USB for real-time monitoring and data export.
• Open-Field Cage Options: Cages are available in multiple dimensions and colours (including non-coloured NC variant) for different experimental requirements.

Research Applications

The Activity Cage is particularly well suited to pharmacological and toxicological research where the effect of a substance on general locomotion and arousal needs to be captured continuously over time. Because the system requires no experimenter intervention after cage placement, it also excels in circadian activity profiling over multi-day recording windows.

• Pharmacological Screening: CNS-active compounds are routinely screened using spontaneous locomotor activity as a primary endpoint for sedation, stimulation, or motor toxicity at multiple dose levels.
• Neurotoxicology: Exposure to neurotoxic substances produces characteristic locomotor suppression or hyperactivity patterns that are captured quantitatively by the IR photocell arrays.
• Circadian Rhythm Research: Continuous 24-hour recording across multiple days resolves the light-dark activity cycle, enabling characterisation of circadian disruption in genetic models or after drug treatment.
• Neurological Disease Phenotyping: Spontaneous hypoactivity (Parkinson’s, depression models) or hyperactivity (ADHD, mania models) is rapidly quantified without observer bias.
• Anxiolytic & Stimulant Drug Testing: Exploratory locomotion in a novel cage is sensitive to both anxiolytic-induced disinhibition and stimulant-induced hyperlocomotion.
• Open Field Complement: Activity Cage data is commonly collected as an automated complement to scored open-field observations, providing continuous rearing and locomotion counts throughout the trial.