title: Recording lifetime behavior and movement in an invertebrate model.
abstract: Characterization of lifetime behavioral changes is essential for understanding aging and aging-related diseases. However, such studies are scarce partly due to the lack of efficient tools. Here we describe and provide proof of concept for a stereo vision system that classifies and sequentially records at an extremely fine scale six different behaviors (resting, micro-movement, walking, flying, feeding and drinking) and the within-cage (3D) location of individual tephritid fruit flies by time-of-day throughout their lives. Using flies fed on two different diets, full sugar-yeast and sugar-only diets, we report for the first time their behavioral changes throughout their lives at a high resolution. We have found that the daily activity peaks at the age of 15-20 days and then gradually declines with age for flies on both diets. However, the overall daily activity is higher for flies on sugar-only diet than those on the full diet. Flies on sugar-only diet show a stronger diurnal localization pattern with higher preference to staying on the top of the cage during the period of light-off when compared to flies on the full diet. Clustering analyses of age-specific behavior patterns reveal three distinct young, middle-aged and old clusters for flies on each of the two diets. The middle-aged groups for flies on sugar-only diet consist of much younger age groups when compared to flies on full diet. This technology provides research opportunities for using a behavioral informatics approach for understanding different ways in which behavior, movement, and aging in model organisms are mutually affecting.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sige
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liedo
authors.forename: Leopoldo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Altamirano-Robles
authors.forename: Janeth
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cruz-Enriquez
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morice
authors.forename: Donald K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ingram
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaub
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Carey
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009068:Movement; D012984:Software; D033621:Tephritidae; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates