Jun 01, 2026
- Amandine EVEN1,2,3,4,5,
- Sriparna Mukherjee1,2,3,5,
- Louis-Eric Trudeau1,2,3,5,4,6
- 1Department of pharmacology and physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal;
- 2Neural Signaling and Circuitry research group (SNC);
- 3Center for Interdisciplinary Research on the Brain and Learning (CIRCA);
- 4Institut Courtois d’innovation biomédicale;
- 5Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815;
- 6Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
Protocol Citation: Amandine EVEN, Sriparna Mukherjee, Louis-Eric Trudeau 2026. Rotarod. protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.dm6gp713pgzp/v1
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: March 29, 2026
Last Modified: June 01, 2026
Protocol Integer ID: 314085
Keywords: rotarod, test motor coordination, motor learning, behavioral testing mice, latency to fall, motor performance, assessment of motor coordination, rotarod test, motor coordination, learning in mice, maximal rotation speed across trial, rotarod this protocol, mice, animal habituation, multiple trial, maximal rotation speed, consecutive testing days with multiple trial, trial, consecutive testing day, assessment, training day
Funders Acknowledgements:
Aligning Science Across Parkinson's
Grant ID: ASAP-000525
Abstract
This protocol describes the assessment of motor coordination and learning in mice using the rotarod test. The procedure includes animal habituation, a training day, and three consecutive testing days with multiple trials per session. Motor performance is quantified by recording latency to fall and maximal rotation speed across trials.
Guidelines
Motor coordination was evaluated with a rotarod apparatus.
The first day, mice were pre-trained on the rotarod to reach a stable performance.
The next three days, mice were then tested.
Materials
Apparatus: Rotarod apparatus, Harvard Apparatus, LE8205, USA
Safety warnings
When the mouse falls on the lever, the recording stops and the experimenter needs to write the time as indicated in respective lanes. Three mice can be placed at a time on the rod. However, it depends on the choice of the experimenter. [if many mice are on the rod, they might fall at different times, and it may be hard to note
down each data point acurately. Note that it is important to be attentive because mice could fall without lower the lever.
Ethics statement
Ethical approval:
- Ensure all procedures are approved by the institutional animal care and ethics committees
- Follow guidelines as outlined by the Council of Animal Care in your country
Before start
If experiment is done during the dark cycle, it is preferable to start the behaviour work at least one hour after the light-dark cycle change.
Day 1 - Training
1m
Mice are acclimated in the room 01:00:00 before the experiment.
Mice are trained to stay on the rotating rod at a constant speed by performing 5 trials.
1m
Place the mouse on the rod for up to 00:01:00 at 4 rpm .
Repeat step 2.1 until the mouse stays on the rotating rod at the constant speed (within 5 trials max)
Follow this table to record all the observations during the training phase:
| Mouse tag | Trial 1 (sec) | Trial 2 (sec) | Trial 3 (sec) | Trial 4 (sec) | Trial 5 (sec) | Fecal pellet count | |
Day 2, 3 and 4 - Testing
1h 50m
Mice are acclimated in the room 01:00:00 before the experiment.
1h
Mice are tested for 3 trials per day to stay on the rotating rod with an accelerated rotation:
Place the mouse on the rotarod with an accelerated rotation of 4 rpm - 40 rpm in 00:05:00 . Let the mouse on the rod for a maximum of 00:10:00 .
10m
Between each trial, the mice are kept in their home cage for 00:10:00 as a resting time. The rotarod will be cleaned during this time.
10m
Repeat 2 more times.
30m
Record the latency to fall (time) and the RPM max of all 3 trials.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | |
| Mouse Tag | RMP-Time | Fecal pellet | Interval | RPM-Time | Fecal pellet | Interval | RPM -Time | Fecal pellet | |
| 10 min | 10 min | ||||||||
| 10 min | 10 min | ||||||||
| 10 min | 10 min |
Protocol references