Garcia Vitor Augusto, Crispim Junior Carlos Fernando, Marino-Neto Jose
Electrical Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina Florianopolis, Brazil.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010;2010:6603-6. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2010.5627131.
Behavior studies on the neurobiological effects of environmental, pharmacological and physiological manipulations in lab animals try to correlate these procedures with specific changes in animal behavior. Parameters such as duration, latency and frequency are assessed from the visually recorded sequences of behaviors, to distinguish changes due to manipulation. Since behavioral recording procedure is intrinsically interpretative, high variability in experimental results is expected and usual, due to observer-related influences such as experience, knowledge, stress, fatigue and personal biases. Here, we present a computer program that supports the assessment of inter- and intra-observer concordance, using statistical indices (e.g., Kappa and Kendal coefficients and concordance index). The software was tested in a case study with 4 different observers, naïve to behavioral recording procedures. On paired analysis, the higher agreement index achieved was 0.76 (concordance index) and 0.47 (Kappa Coefficient, where 0 is no agreement and 1 is total agreement). Observers showed poor concordance indices (lower than 0.7), emphasizing the concern on observer recording stability and on precise morphological definition of the recorded behaviors. These indices can also be used to train observers and to refine the behavioral catalogue definitions, as they are related to different behavioral recording aspects.
关于环境、药物和生理操作对实验动物神经生物学影响的行为研究试图将这些操作与动物行为的特定变化联系起来。行为持续时间、潜伏期和频率等参数通过对视觉记录的行为序列进行评估，以区分操作引起的变化。由于行为记录过程本质上具有解释性，由于观察者相关的影响，如经验、知识、压力、疲劳和个人偏见，实验结果中存在高变异性是预期且常见的。在此，我们展示了一个计算机程序，该程序使用统计指标（如卡帕系数和肯德尔系数以及一致性指数）来支持观察者间和观察者内一致性的评估。该软件在一个案例研究中进行了测试，有4名对行为记录程序不熟悉的不同观察者参与。在配对分析中，获得的较高一致性指数为0.76（一致性指数）和0.47（卡帕系数，其中0表示无一致性，1表示完全一致）。观察者显示出较差的一致性指数（低于0.7），这突出了对观察者记录稳定性以及所记录行为精确形态学定义的关注。这些指数也可用于培训观察者并完善行为目录定义，因为它们与不同的行为记录方面相关。
