| First Author | Puścian A | Year | 2016 |
| Journal | Elife | Volume | 5 |
| PubMed ID | 27731798 | Mgi Jnum | J:254985 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6109581 | Doi | 10.7554/eLife.19532 |
| Citation | Puscian A, et al. (2016) Eco-HAB as a fully automated and ecologically relevant assessment of social impairments in mouse models of autism. Elife 5:e19532 |
| abstractText | Eco-HAB is an open source, RFID-based system for automated measurement and analysis of social preference and in-cohort sociability in mice. The system closely follows murine ethology. It requires no contact between a human experimenter and tested animals, overcoming the confounding factors that lead to irreproducible assessment of murine social behavior between laboratories. In Eco-HAB, group-housed animals live in a spacious, four-compartment apparatus with shadowed areas and narrow tunnels, resembling natural burrows. Eco-HAB allows for assessment of the tendency of mice to voluntarily spend time together in ethologically relevant mouse group sizes. Custom-made software for automated tracking, data extraction, and analysis enables quick evaluation of social impairments. The developed protocols and standardized behavioral measures demonstrate high replicability. Unlike classic three-chambered sociability tests, Eco-HAB provides measurements of spontaneous, ecologically relevant social behaviors in group-housed animals. Results are obtained faster, with less manpower, and without confounding factors. |
