Toward a novel approach for the simultaneous recording of behavioral and physiological data in rodents

B.A. Ellenbroek, D.J. Heeren and L.J. Lubbers

Department Psychoneuropharmacology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

With the increase in techniques for altering the genetic make-up of mice (and more recently also rats) there is an increased need for developing sophisticated hardware and software that allow for the simultaneous analysis of a large number of different parameters in a relatively high throughput setup. Ideally such a system should use a standardized protocol, yet on the other hand allow for individual modifications necessary for specific research questions. Moreover, it should allow registration of both behavioral data using software analysis of speci.c behavioral elements, as well as the (telemetric) recording of physiological parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature; and these two data streams should be synchronised so that behavioral changes can be directly coupled to physiological changes. Finally, the system should be designed to register and monitor the behavior of several animals within the same cage, allowing the analysis of various kinds of social behavior, including play behavior, social interactions between conspeci.cs and sexual behavior,

We are presently evaluating and validating such a new approach for rats by using PhenoTyper^® (Noldus Information Technology bv, The Netherlands) and the PhysioLinQ developed by Telemetronics bv. PhenoTyper allows for the continuous recording of behavioral data. These videostreams can then be analysed using well known software programs such as EthoVision^® (Noldus Information Technology bv, The Netherlands) and/or The Observer^® (Noldus Information Technology bv, The Netherlands). The PhysiolinQ represents a novel telemetric device that can record body temperature and heart rate. During the presentation we will show the .rst results from our pharmacological experiments using singly housed rats, where alterations in body temperature and heart rate can directly be linked to changes in behavior. Moreover we will give a short demonstration of a social experiment, in which behavior, heart rate and body temperature during such a social encounter are registered and synchronised.

Although the validation of the entire system is still ongoing, the .rst results suggest that this represents a novel approach for the simultaneous recording of behavioral and physiological data which will become of crucial importance for the phenotypical analysis of small rodents such as rats and mice.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

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