Real-time Patterns of Behavior Following Nociceptive Stimulation in Rats

The hot-plate test is employed, in rodents, to assess the analgesic properties of drugs. The surface where the animal is placed is normally maintained at a constant temperature around 50°C or 55°C. For this reason rat’s behavior, once placed on the heated surface, can be observed only for few seconds, and a necessary interruption occurs following an a priori-established cut-off to avoid tissue injuries. Such a narrow time window dampened the assessment of fine behavioral characteristics such as the temporal structure of behavior. In the present paper we demonstrate the possibility to apply a refined multivariate approach, known as T-pattern analysis (TPA), to describe the temporal character…