Abstract: Spontaneous locomotor activity is a widely used evaluation method in safety pharmacology of central nerve system and investigation of neuroscience.Spontaneous locomotor activity test is an important method that can investigate several animals' species and their associated indexes of spontaneous locomotor activity;it can also provide parameters for several pharmacological objectives including safety pharmacology of central nerve system.The new developed equipments and methods have many merits.This paper reviews the progress of methodology of spontaneous locomotor activity test in rats,pigs and monkeys.

Key words: spontaneous locomotor activity, open-field test, pharmacological method, safety pharmacology