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Computerized video analysis of social interactions in mice

Nature Methods volume 9, pages 410–417 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The study of social interactions in mice is used as a model for normal and pathological cognitive and emotional processes. But extracting comprehensive behavioral information from videos of interacting mice is still a challenge. We describe a computerized method and software, MiceProfiler, that uses geometrical primitives to model and track two mice without requiring any specific tagging. The program monitors a comprehensive repertoire of behavioral states and their temporal evolution, allowing the identification of key elements that trigger social contact. Using MiceProfiler we studied the role of neuronal nicotinic receptors in the establishment of social interactions and risk-prone postures. We found that the duration and type of social interactions with a conspecific evolves differently over time in mice lacking neuronal nicotinic receptors (Chrnb2−/−, here called β2−/−), compared to C57BL/6J mice, and identified a new type of coordinated posture, called back-to-back posture, that we rarely observed in β2−/− mice.

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Figure 1: Physics model and repertoire of social interaction.
Figure 2: Comparison of manual and automatic tracking using MiceProfiler.
Figure 3: Analysis of contact, relative position and dynamic behaviors.
Figure 4: Analysis of back to back postures.
Figure 5: Transitional behavioral graphs.
Figure 6: Analysis of the mouse visual field of view during specific behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Institut Pasteur, by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (URA 2582 and UMR 8195), by the Université Paris Sud 11 (Chaire d'Excellence to S.G., post-doctoral fellowship to R.D.-S.C. and PhD grant (Bourse de la Présidence) to J.C.), and the Université Paris 6 (PhD grant to P.S.). It was also supported in part by a grant from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-09-BLAN-0340-02 FLEXNEURIM).

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Author notes

  1. Sylvie Granon and Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Pasteur, Unité d'Analyse d'Images Quantitative, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité de Recherche Associée 2582, Paris, France

    Fabrice de Chaumont & Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin

  2. Centre de Neuroscience Paris Sud XI, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 8195, Université Paris Sud 11, Orsay, France

    Renata Dos-Santos Coura, Pierre Serreau, Arnaud Cressant, Jonathan Chabout & Sylvie Granon

  3. Institut Pasteur, Unité de Neuroscience Intégrative des Systèmes Cholinergiques, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité de Recherche Associée 2128, Paris, France.,

    Pierre Serreau

Authors
  1. Fabrice de Chaumont
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  5. Jonathan Chabout
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  6. Sylvie Granon
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  7. Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin
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Contributions

F.d.C. created the tracking and analysis methods, and developed the software. R.D.-S.C. and A.C. performed and analyzed experiments. P.S. and J.C. analyzed experiments. S.G. designed the behavioral repertoire, performed and analyzed experiments, and conducted statistical analyses. J.-C.O.-M. supervised the design of the tracking method. F.d.C., A.C., S.G. and J.-C.O.-M. conceived the project and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sylvie Granon or Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–6, Supplementary Notes 1–4 (PDF 1376 kb)

Supplementary Software

Bundle of Icy and MiceProfiler. (ZIP 90801 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Video demonstration of MiceProfiler. (MP4 83080 kb)

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de Chaumont, F., Coura, RS., Serreau, P. et al. Computerized video analysis of social interactions in mice. Nat Methods 9, 410–417 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1924

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