Abstract
Automated detection of complex animal behavior remains a challenge in behavioral neurogenetics. Developments in computer-vision have greatly advanced automated behavior detection and allow high-throughput pre-clinical studies. An integrated hardware and software solution is necessary to facilitate the adoption of these advances in the field of behavioral neurogenetics, particularly for non-computational labs. We have published a series of papers using an open field arena to annotate complex behaviors such as grooming, posture, and gait as well as higher level constructs such as frailty. Here, we describe in detail our integrated hardware and software solution for robust, high quality video monitoring of mice. We provide safety data for mice in long-term monitoring by recording environmental conditions in the arenas as well as health markers. The details provided here offer one potential solution for standardized high quality video data for computer vision tasks, and enables replication of our work.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
