Differences in Whisker Movement in Mouse Models of Parkinson's Disease & Healthy Mice
Abstract: Analysing differences in whisking movement between Parkinson’s Disease (PD) modeled mice and healthy control mice can help us to better understand active sensing and the sensorimotor system. In this thesis whisking data obtained from de Voogel’s (2020) master thesis was analysed with the goal to identify differences in whisking movement. The data used was multidimensional data of time series, which consisted of whisker angles over time. The methods used for the analysis were Principal Component Analysis and Hidden Markov Model, as well as some simple statistical procedures. There were found to be differences in whisking movement between PD modeled mice and healthy controls. Differences were observed in movement estimates, how independently the animals were able to move their whiskers as well as in activity of whiskers. Movement estimates of single whiskers varied greatly in PD modeled compared to control mice, where movement estimates were more evenly distributed. The PD modeled mice moved their whiskers more at the same time, especially on the right side of the face, compared to the healthy control mice who moved their whiskers more independently from one another. Finally, PD modeled mice were actively whisking less of the time on average compared to healthy control mice. The study showed that there is indeed a difference in whisking movement between PD modeled mice and healthy control mice, as well as that multidimensional data of time series can be used to analyse and identify differences in whisker movement.
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