TrAQ: A novel, versatile, semi-automated, two-dimensional motor behavioural tracking software

We present TrAQ, a new MATLAB-based two-dimensional tracking software for Open Field video analysis of an unmarked single animal. TrAQ allows automatic recognition of the animal within a user-defined arena, providing a full range of quantitative kinematic behavioral parameters. TrAQ, free and non-species-specific application, was quantitively tested with rodents. Within free software an innovative feature of TrAQ is the automated counting of in-plane rotations, an important parameter in the 6-hydroxydopamine hemiparkinsonian rat model and in many rodent models of neurodegenerative diseases, and a very time-consuming manual task for highly trained human operators. Quantitative results were successfully validated against commercial software (for tracking) and manual annotation (for rotations in a hemiparkinsonian rat model). TrAQ allows the characterization of motor asymmetry using non-invasive tools, thus appreciating the spontaneous Open Field behaviour of unmarked single animal, with minimum user intervention.