Automated long-term tracking and social behavioural phenotyping of animal colonies within a semi-natural environment

Social behaviour has a key role in animal survival across species, ranging from insects to primates and humans. However, the biological mechanisms driving natural interactions between multiple animals, over long-term periods, are poorly studied and remain elusive. Rigorous and objective quantificati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2013, Vol.4 (1), p.2018-2018, Article 2018
Main Authors: Weissbrod, Aharon, Shapiro, Alexander, Vasserman, Genadiy, Edry, Liat, Dayan, Molly, Yitzhaky, Assif, Hertzberg, Libi, Feinerman, Ofer, Kimchi, Tali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/1647/2198
631/378/2645
Animals
Automation
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Crosses, Genetic
Data Collection
Environment
Female
Hierarchy, Social
Humanities and Social Sciences
Locomotion
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
multidisciplinary
Phenotype
Radio Frequency Identification Device - methods
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Social Behavior
Time Factors
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Summary:Social behaviour has a key role in animal survival across species, ranging from insects to primates and humans. However, the biological mechanisms driving natural interactions between multiple animals, over long-term periods, are poorly studied and remain elusive. Rigorous and objective quantification of behavioural parameters within a group poses a major challenge as it requires simultaneous monitoring of the positions of several individuals and comprehensive consideration of many complex factors. Automatic tracking and phenotyping of interacting animals could thus overcome the limitations of manual tracking methods. Here we report a broadly applicable system that automatically tracks the locations of multiple, uniquely identified animals, such as mice, within a semi-natural setting. The system combines video and radio frequency identified tracking data to obtain detailed behavioural profiles of both individuals and groups. We demonstrate the usefulness of these data in characterizing individual phenotypes, interactions between pairs and the collective social organization of groups. Quantification of the behavioural phenotype of animals within a group requires simultaneous position and identity tracking of multiple individuals. Here the authors report an automated tracking system that combines video- and RFID-tracking data and allows behavioural phenotyping of uniquely identified group-living animals.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms3018