Fine motor coordination can be assessed by using a beam walking or beam balance test. This test essentially examines the ability of the animal to remain upright and to walk on an elevated and relatively narrow beam. Unilateral brain injury tend to induce a hemiparesis-like effect which can cause the rodent to slip to one side, usually that which is contralateral to the injury site.

 

Material

Beams are made of grey PVC. Beam is fixed on two height adjustable tripods.

Dimensions

	rats	mice
overall beam lenght	165 cm ( 65" )	80 cm ( 31 1/2" )
upper beam width	6 - 1.5 cm	2 - 0.5 cm
lower beam width	10 - 5.5 cm ( 4 - 2 1/8" )	4 - 2.2 cm
upper beam height	2 cm ( 3/4" )	2 cm ( 3/4" )

Key features

The lower beam is detachable.

Upper beam has bright marks every 5cm ( 2" ) on its sides for convenient estimation of animal position.

At the narrow end of the beams the dark box can be attached.