PyRodentTracks: flexible computer vision and RFID based system for multiple rodent tracking and behavioral assessment

Abstract

PyRodentTracks (PRT) is a scalable and customizable computer vision and RFID-based system for multiple rodent tracking and behavior assessment that can be set up within minutes in any user-defined arena at minimal cost. PRT is composed of the online Raspberry Pi-based video and RFID acquisition and the subsequent offline analysis tools. The system is capable of tracking up to 6 mice in experiments ranging from minutes to days. PRT maintained a minimum of 88% detections tracked with an overall accuracy >85% when compared to manual validation of videos containing 1-4 mice in a modified home-cage. As expected, chronic recording in home-cage revealed diurnal activity patterns. Moreover, it was observed that novel non-cagemate mice pairs exhibit more similarity in travel trajectory patterns over a 10-minute period in the openfield than cagemates. Therefore, shared features within travel trajectories between animals may be a measure of sociability that has not been previously reported. Moreover, PRT can interface with open-source packages such as Deeplabcut and Traja for pose estimation and travel trajectory analysis, respectively. In combination with Traja, PRT resolved motor deficits exhibited in stroke animals. Overall, we present an affordable, open-sourced, and customizable/scalable rodent-specific behavior recording and analysis system.

Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

“…Behavioral assays are often used to quantify the behavior of rodents, and many new tools are being developed for both individual social tracking and behavioral scoring [61][62][63][64][65][66]. Tests that have been used to quantify social behavior in rodents include, for example, reciprocal social interaction, social approach partition, social preference, social transmission of food preference, food allocation, and reciprocal cooperation [13,23,67].…”