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Led by Professor Neri Kafkafi of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, the scientists used a mathematical program that analyzed nearly 50,000 predetermined movement patterns that occur when rats roam alone in a small area. Each movement was defined by a combination of speed, acceleration and direction of movement.

The researchers then used the program to analyze the movement of normal rats, as well as rats with a mutation producing a condition similar to the human disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease -- a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative illness that attacks nerve cells controlling movement.

The researchers discovered rats who were healthy at the time, but who had the mutation that would later produce the neurodegenerative disease, used a particular movement pattern significantly less frequently than normal rats.

The authors said being able to identify people who are likely to develop a disease before they experience symptoms could allow researchers to test medicines that might prevent symptoms from emerging.

The study that included Daniel Yekutieli of Tel Aviv University appears in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

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