HABA: A High-Speed Animal Behavior Acquisition and Analysis System

Dopamine (DA) is an important neurotransmitter that plays several critical roles in central nervous system, as the initiation, speed and fluidity of voluntary movement. Motor dysfunction induced by several neurological disorders are associated with dopamine depletion. Using head-fixed behavior task already achieved the monitoring of dynamic changes of DA in motor skilling learning process, however, it is difficult to establish the correlation between DA and movement initiation in freely moving status, due to the limitations of video and brain signals acquisition of the current systems. Here, we propose an intelligent High-speed Animal Behavior Acquisition and Analysis(HABA) system that integrates the mouse behavior collection and artificial intelligence analysis in a freely moving behavior task. HABA can not only focus on record the mouse movement at a high-frame rate, but also capture real-time DA changes via DA probe. And then, the designed software automatically analyzes the correlation between behavioral parameters and DA via defined stimulation and velocity. Experiments have demonstrated that the system has the capability to capture data related to mice in a highly detailed manner and can further analyze it in a completely automated fashion, thus promoting the advancement of relevant neurobiological theories in a significant manner.