Automated behavioral analysis of mice using INTELLICAGE: inter-laboratory comparisons and validation with exploratory behavior and spatial learning

INTELLICAGE TM is a large home cage containing four complete operant conditioning units placed in the corners. A central computer continuously controls and monitors activity and learning of up to 16 transponder-tagged mice per cage without human interference over hours, days or weeks. A common problem in behavioral phenotyping of mice is that genetic differences are inconsistent across laboratories. This is partially due to uncontrollable interactions between experimenter, variations of experimental set-up and variable stress reactions of mice being exposed singly to a variety of stimuli and situations. Here we compare mice that have been raised under identical conditions but then tested in two different laboratories for exploratory behavior and spatial learning, first by manual testing using identical test set-ups, and then in the automated INTELLICAGE. The data presented here illustrate that automated testing provides much more consistent data across laboratories, and they show that INTELLICAGE measures at least partially the same behavioral traits as observed in standard tests of mouse exploratory behavior and spatial learning.