Rodent Behavior: Approaches

Standard behavioral analysis of rats and mice is typically time-consuming and labor-intensive. Several factors have driven the field to consider more high-throughput methods to assess rodent behavior. The still accelerating creation of mutant mice and rats by mutagenesis and viral-mediated gene transfer has swamped traditional behavioral assays. The difficulty in developing psychotherapeutic medications with fundamentally novel mechanisms of action has caused some to place behavioral screens of potential drugs earlier in the drug discovery process, which is not as feasible with traditional approaches. Finally, existing assays are incomplete in terms of the range of rodent behavior they can assess. Consequently, new strategies combining automated behavioral monitoring and information technologies are under development in both academic and industrial settings. These hold promise both for improving the throughput of mouse behavioral assessment and for providing new insights into the neurobiology of mammalian complex behavior.