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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.12.15.519769

A reductionist paradigm for high-throughput behavioural fingerprinting in Drosophila melanogaster

Jones, H.·Willis, J. A.·Firth, L. C.·Giachello, C. N. G.·Gilestro, G. F.
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Abstract

Understanding how the brain encodes behaviour is the ultimate goal of neuroscience and the ability to objectively and reproducibly describe and quantify behaviour is a necessary milestone on this path. Recent technological progresses in machine learning and computational power have boosted the development and adoption of systems leveraging on high-resolution video recording to track an animal pose and describe behaviour in all four dimensions. However, the high temporal and spatial resolution that these systems offer must come as a compromise with their throughput and accessibility. Here we describe coccinella, an open-source reductionist framework combining high-throughput analysis of behaviour using real-time tracking on a distributed mesh of microcomputers (ethoscopes) with resource-lean statistical learning (HCTSA/Catch22). Coccinella is a reductionist system, yet outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives when exploring the pharmacobehaviour in Drosophila melanogaster.

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Jones, H., Willis, J. A., Firth, L. C., Giachello, C. N. G., Gilestro, G. F.. 2022-12-15. A reductionist paradigm for high-throughput behavioural fingerprinting in Drosophila melanogaster. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.15.519769

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