Large Spherical Treadmill Video Capture Spherical Treadmill

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Spherical Treadmill

What is the Spherical Treadmill?

The large spherical treadmill is a lightweight high-density polystyrene sphere that floats on a sparse bed of air-cushioned ping-pong ball bearings. The treadmill was designed for behavior and neuroscience studies of mice and small animals.

For mice (8-12 wk, 20-30 g), we present a 16” (40.64 cm, approx. 65-70 g) diameter spherical treadmill. For young adult rats (3-8 wk, 60-150 g), we present a 24” (60.96 cm, approx. 225-275 g) diameter system. For body tethered adult rats of 350-400g, we suggest a treadmill weight of 335-350g.


Features & Benefits:

  • A larger spherical diameter creates a flatter treadmill surface area that allows for a more comfortable animal and positively promotes the expression of natural behaviors (sleeping, resting, grooming, and goal-directed walking and running).
  • The point-based floatation system reduces oscillations in air-flow around the treadmill and provides excellent stability under different behavioral and recording conditions.
  • The point-based floatation and minimal frame design accommodate well for slight irregularities in, and differences between, the size of individual spherical treadmills
  • The point-based floatation system reduces air-flow and system volume
  • The minimal frame design allows for increased access to the lower half of the treadmill surface for motion-tracking and other potential manipulations

This spherical treadmill can be used in a variety of settings to study behavior in mice and small animals.