title: Automated Estimation of Mouse Social Behaviors Based on a Hidden Markov Model.
abstract: Recent innovations in sensing and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have enabled researchers in animal behavior to collect an enormous amount of data. Consequently, the development of an automated system to substitute for some of the observations and analyses that are performed currently by expert researchers is becoming a crucial issue so that the vast amount of accumulated data can be processed efficiently. For this purpose, we introduce a process for the automated classification of the social interactive status of two mice in a square field on the basis of a Hidden Markov model (HMM). We developed two models: one for the classification of two states, namely, indifference and interaction, and the other for three states, namely, indifference, sniffing, and following. The HMM was trained with data from 50 pairs of mice as provided by expert human observers. We measured the performance of the HMM by determining its rate of concordance with human observation. We found that sniffing behavior was segmented well by the HMM; however, following behavior was not segmented well by the HMM in terms of percentage concordance. We also developed software called DuoMouse, an automated system for the classification of social interactive behavior of mice, that was based on the HMM. Finally, we compared two implementations of the HMM that were based on a histogram and a Gaussian mixture model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Aichi University of Technology, Gamagori, Aichi, 443-0047, Japan. arakawa-toshiya@aut.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arakawa
authors.affiliation: Transdisciplinary Research Integration Center, Research Organization of Information and Systems, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0001, Japan.|Mouse Genomics Resource Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics (NIG), Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tanave
authors.affiliation: Mouse Genomics Resource Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics (NIG), Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540, Japan.|Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Formerly National Graduate, Institute for Policy Studies, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-8677, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kakihara
authors.affiliation: Transdisciplinary Research Integration Center, Research Organization of Information and Systems, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0001, Japan.|Mouse Genomics Resource Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics (NIG), Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540, Japan.|Department of Genetics, SOKENDAI, Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koide
authors.affiliation: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-8677, Japan.|The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 190-8562, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D016208:Databases, Factual; D008390:Markov Chains; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Behavior; Hidden Markov model; Human observation; Mouse; Social interaction