A generalised framework for detailed classification of swimming paths inside the Morris Water Maze

• Published in: Scientific reports 2018-10, Vol.8 (1), p.15089-15, Article 15089
• Main Authors: Vouros, Avgoustinos, Gehring, Tiago V., Szydlowska, Kinga, Janusz, Artur, Tu, Zehai, Croucher, Mike, Lukasiuk, Katarzyna, Konopka, Witold, Sandi, Carmen, Vasilaki, Eleni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/1647/2198/1760; 631/378/1595/3922; Animal memory; Classification; Data processing; Exploration; Humanities and Social Sciences; Learning algorithms; multidisciplinary; Nervous system; Rodents; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spatial discrimination learning; Swimming; Swimming behavior
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33456-1

The Morris Water Maze is commonly used in behavioural neuroscience for the study of spatial learning with rodents. Over the years, various methods of analysing rodent data collected during this task have been proposed. These methods span from classical performance measurements to more sophisticated categorisation techniques which classify the animal swimming path into behavioural classes known as exploration strategies. Classification techniques provide additional insight into the different types of animal behaviours but still only a limited number of studies utilise them. This is primarily because they depend highly on machine learning knowledge. We have previously demonstrated that the animals implement various strategies and that classifying entire trajectories can lead to the loss of important information. In this work, we have developed a generalised and robust classification methodology to boost classification performance and nullify the need for manual tuning. We have also made available an open-source software based on this methodology.