Metrics and Models for Measuring Behavioral Development in Rodents

描述（由申请人提供）：啮齿动物行为发育测量模型。这项研究有两个基本目标：第一个目标是确定幼年大鼠的哪种行为指标最能预测成年大鼠的行为。在这里开发的方法，将有广泛的应用啮齿动物，特别是在发展过程中的啮齿动物的行为表型相关。第二个目标是开发基于代理的模型，提供一种新的方法来分析婴儿和成年大鼠的行为，这将提供传统统计技术无法实现的理论解释。这些模型将针对幼崽和成年动物开发。它们将在一个开放源代码平台上开发，该平台用Java编写，可在所有主要操作系统上使用。不擅长开发基于代理的模型的用户将能够使用这些模型-用于适当的数据集-就像他们使用流行的统计程序来分析数据一样。这些目标中列出的方法学目标将使用加压素缺乏的Brattleboro大鼠来实现，该大鼠是几种发育障碍（包括自闭症谱系障碍）的潜在重要模式生物。由于幼年Brattleboro大鼠表现出与野生型大鼠的早期运动和社会差异，成年Brattleboro大鼠表现出社会和认知缺陷，因此这是用于开发这些方法的理想模式生物。假设幼鼠运动和聚集的测量和分析将预测成年鼠的社交和认知（例如，学习和记忆）行为。也就是说，我们将能够从聚集和运动的度量中预测野生型和加压素缺乏大鼠作为成年人在学习、记忆和社会行为的几个标准行为测试中的表现差异。此外，为该项目开发的基于代理的模型将大大增强传统的统计分析，允许对结果进行新的理论解释。事实上，在投入时间和资源进行实际动物试验之前，甚至有可能在模拟动物身上测试药物或其他治疗方法。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究的目的之一是开发早期行为动力学的指标，并将其与大鼠的成年行为联系起来，最终与其他啮齿动物模型联系起来。第二个目标是为不同的行为测试建立基于代理的模型，这将有助于我们分析和解释成年人行为，学习，记忆和社会互动的机制。事实上，在投入时间和资源进行实际动物试验之前，甚至有可能在模拟动物身上测试药物或其他治疗方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Metrics and Models for Measuring Behavioral Development in Rodents. The proposed research has two basic aims: The first aim is to determine what kinds of behavioral metrics in infant rats are most predictive of adult behaviors. The approach developed here, will have broad application to rodents and should be especially relevant to behavioral phenotyping of rodents during development. The second aim is to develop agent-based models that provide a novel way to analyze behavior in both infant and adult rats, and, which will provide theoretical interpretations that are not possible with traditional statistical techniques. These models will be developed for both infant and adult animals. They will be developed on an open-source platform, which is written in Java and usable on all major operating systems. Users who are not experts in the development of agent- based models will be able to use these models-for appropriate data sets-just as they use popular statistical programs to analyze data. The methodological goals laid out in these aims will be accomplished using vasopressin deficient Brattleboro rats, which are a potentially important model organism for several developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders. Since juvenile Brattleboro rats exhibit early locomotor and social differences from wild type rats and adult Brattleboro rats exhibit social and cognitive deficits, this is an ideal model organism to use in developing these methods. It is hypothesized that the measurement and analysis of infant rat locomotion and aggregation will be predictive of adult social and cognitive (e.g., learning and memory) behavior. That is, we will be able to predict from metrics of aggregation and locomotion, differences in performance of wild type and vasopressin deficient rats as adults in several standard behavioral tests of learning, memory, and social behavior. Moreover, the agent-based models developed for this project will greatly enhance traditional statistical analyses, allowing for the novel theoretical interpretation of results. Indeed, it may even be possible one day to test out drugs or other therapeutic treatments on simulated animals before investing the time and resources on actual animal testing. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: One aim of the proposed research is to develop metrics of the dynamics of early behavior and connect them to adult behavior in rats and ultimately other rodent animal models. A second aim is to build agent-based models for different behavioral tests, which will help us analyze and explain mechanisms underlying adult behavior, learning, memory and social interactions. Indeed, it may even be possible one day to test out drugs or other therapeutic treatments on simulated animals before investing the time and resources on actual animal testing.