Developing Novel Automated Apparatus for Studying Battery of Social Behaviors in Mutant Mouse Models for Autism.

摘要

We have constructed general-purpose, automated, quantitative behavioral phenotyping platform for cohort socially interacting group of mice. The system is designed for identification and quantification of a large battery of locomotion and social behavioral traits potentially relevant to the symptoms of autism and other social-related mental disorders. Importantly, the systems are designed to remotely record mouse behavior day and night on much longer time scales than traditionally assayed, and to provide the tested animals with ecologically-relevant experimental conditions. We demonstrate the usefulness of this data in characterizing individual phenotypes, interactions between pairs and the collective social organization of groups. Since our experimental platform poses no significant size or structure constraints, it can be readily adjusted to enable a wide range of multi-purpose, stable measurements on diverse animal research models.