Akinesia is one of the three cardinal signs of Parkinson´s disease. In contrast to other parkinsonian symptoms (e.g., tremor), akinetic alterations are more difficult to quantify. The aim of the present study was to quantitatively specifically assess the akinetic impact of dopaminergic degeneration in a rat model of parkinsonism. Long-term observations (>40h) of rats were carried out in an open-field environment 14 days before and 14 days after bilateral 6OH-dopamine lesioning (N=7) and sham lesioning (N=3) of the substantia nigra, respectively. The utilization of an especially designed video-tracking system allowed for a precise registration and a detailed analysis of movement-episodes. Here we report on first results concerning mean locomotion-time, covered distance and movement velocity. Whereas all locomotion-parameters of sham-lesioned rats remained unaltered, the dopamine-depleted group showed significant decreases of their overall locomotion- time (-10,5%, relative to preoperative baseline) and of the mean covered distance (-20,2%) following nigrostriatal denervation. Furthermore, dopamine-depleted rats revealed a significant slowdown of their spontaneous movements (6,0 cm/s vs. 5,2 cm/s). However, it was observed that individual alterations varied to considerable extents, pointing at different degrees of dopaminergic denervation. Further studies are needed to correlate individual behavioral deficits with the lesion extent.