We proposed to develop a high-throughput system for rapid and automated phenotypic screen: drug effects on home-cage behavior in mice or rats. The purposes of the project are to determine whether the application of a new automated procedure to classify different behaviors in mice and rats is able to reliably predict drug-induced changes in home-cage behavior. The main advantage of the methods that are proposed to be used in this proposal is that it will enable investigators to perform very complex home cage behavior analysis that are almost impossible with today's technologies, and to conduct large scale screening tests to examine the effects of a wide variety of different drugs of abuse in mutant mice or rats. This technology will improve the quality, and alleviate the burden, of observing mouse behavior and achieve more objective and constant analysis. Our research will achieve the goal of developing and improving automated methods for measuring drug directed or related behaviors, or for measuring behavioral responsivity to drugs of abuse or potential therapeutic agents. This will include the studies in both areas of behavioral research and computer algorithm designs, as well as complete system integration. The technology is based on our developing and reusing digital video analysis and image processing technologies.
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