Peters Suzanne M, Pinter Ilona J, Pothuizen Helen H J, de Heer Raymond C, van der Harst Johanneke E, Spruijt Berry M
Delta Phenomics B.V., Nistelrooisebaan 3, NL-5374 RE Schaijk, The Netherlands; Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, NL-3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Delta Phenomics B.V., Nistelrooisebaan 3, NL-5374 RE Schaijk, The Netherlands; Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, NL-3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
J Neurosci Methods. 2016 Aug 1;268:163-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2016.02.020. Epub 2016 Feb 27.
In the past, studies in behavioral neuroscience and drug development have relied on simple and quick readout parameters of animal behavior to assess treatment efficacy or to understand underlying brain mechanisms. The predominant use of classical behavioral tests has been repeatedly criticized during the last decades because of their poor reproducibility, poor translational value and the limited explanatory power in functional terms.
We present a new method to monitor social behavior of rats using automated video tracking. The velocity of moving and the distance between two rats were plotted in frequency distributions. In addition, behavior was manually annotated and related to the automatically obtained parameters for a validated interpretation.
Inter-individual distance in combination with velocity of movement provided specific behavioral classes, such as moving with high velocity when "in contact" or "in proximity". Human observations showed that these classes coincide with following (chasing) behavior. In addition, when animals are "in contact", but at low velocity, behaviors such as allogrooming and social investigation were observed. Also, low dose treatment with morphine and short isolation increased the time animals spent in contact or in proximity at high velocity.
Current methods that involve the investigation of social rat behavior are mostly limited to short and relatively simple manual observations.
A new and automated method for analyzing social behavior in a social interaction test is presented here and shows to be sensitive to drug treatment and housing conditions known to influence social behavior in rats.
过去，行为神经科学和药物开发的研究依赖于动物行为的简单快速读出参数来评估治疗效果或理解潜在的脑机制。在过去几十年里，经典行为测试的主要应用因可重复性差、转化价值低以及功能方面的解释力有限而屡屡受到批评。
我们提出了一种使用自动视频跟踪来监测大鼠社交行为的新方法。移动速度和两只大鼠之间的距离被绘制成频率分布。此外，行为被手动注释，并与自动获得的参数相关联以进行有效解释。
个体间距离与移动速度相结合提供了特定的行为类别，例如“接触”或“接近”时高速移动。人工观察表明，这些类别与跟随（追逐）行为一致。此外，当动物“接触”但速度较低时，观察到诸如互舐和社交探究等行为。而且，低剂量吗啡治疗和短期隔离增加了动物在高速时接触或接近的时间。
目前涉及大鼠社交行为研究的方法大多局限于简短且相对简单的人工观察。
本文提出了一种在社交互动测试中分析社交行为的新的自动化方法，该方法对已知会影响大鼠社交行为的药物治疗和饲养条件敏感。
