Deficient Purposeful Use of Forepaws in Female Mice Modelling Rett Syndrome

Figure 2

Daily spontaneous locomotor activity in the home-cage. MeCP2-308 heterozygous female mice (Het, ) showed decreased home-cage spontaneous circadian locomotor activity compared to age-matched wild-type controls (wt, ) during the dark/active phase of the L/D cycle. Mice were individually housed in the home-cages and locomotor activity was automatically recorded. The infrared sensors detected any movement of mice with a frequency of 20 events per second. Scores were obtained as counts per minute expressed during 1 h periods, and the 24 h profile of daily activity was obtained by averaging 7 days of continuous registration. (a) Representation of the 24 h activity profile, Het (black circles) and wt mice (white circles). The area evidenced in gray represents the dark/active phase of the day and the dash lines indicate the intervals during which the spontaneous behaviours in home-cages were scored by the experimenter (see Figure 3). (b) Representation of the 12 h activity profile. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. .

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