A device for analyzing drug-induced responses in freely moving mice.

The team built a small box with a tilted floor and a wire ceiling.

A mouse moved freely inside.

Each time the mouse twitched its head, the device clicked once.

The clicks gave an automatic count of hallucinogen-induced head twitches.

No people had to watch or score.

The paper only describes the machine.

It does not give test results or drug data.

FARMELong (1963) built an earlier box for rats.

It counted how shock or drugs broke a learned lever sequence.

Both tools remove human scoring, but they watch different behaviors.

Robinson et al. (1974) later made a pole that tallies rat fights after shock.

Like the 1972 head-twitch box, the pole turns a quick motion into a number.

Hoyle et al. (2022) reviewed direct drug tests for children.

They say good measures are rare.

The 1972 mouse counter shows the field has long chased clean data, yet we still need better tools for kids.

You probably work with people, not mice.

Still, the idea is useful: pick one clear, repeatable motion that a drug might change.

Count it with a sensor instead of your eyes.

If you ever help a doctor track side effects of a new medication, propose an automatic tally like this.

It gives faster, cleaner data than clipboards and guesswork.