Topic: IntelliCage

Persistent organic pollutants like dioxin, PCBs, PFOS, PFOA, and brominated flame retardants are known to disrupt thyroid hormones. Previous animal studies have reported their effects on activity and cognitive functions. Our research group utilizes IntelliCage, an automated behavior recording system, to assess exposure effects of metals such as arsenic, methylmercury, and dioxins. In this study, we investigated how hypothyroidism induces behavioral abnormalities in growth-retarded (grt) mice with congenital thyroid hypoplasia. Grt mice, characterized by a tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase 2 (Tps

Mice are social animals and the social context affects their behavior and learning: in isolation only some prosocial behaviors are expressed. One approach to account for the social effects on behavior is to use intelligent cages, such as the Intellicage studied here, which facilitate studies of mice cohorts in a more ecological setting. This contextual advantage is countered by challenges to analyze data in a way to extract group interactions. Often these systems are used only to increase throughput of phenotypization under an assumption that the mice are, in fact, behaving independently. Unle

In traditional experiments, mice could discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Herein, we report a novel “target-following task (TFT)” in the IntelliCage system to assess mice ability to identify and recognize a specific individual and its role under group-housed conditions. IntelliCage enables us to assign the correct out of four locations in the cage using drinking water as a reward. In the TFT, the correct location of the “follower” mouse was assigned as the location spontaneously chosen by the “target” mouse: the follower must identify its target mouse among multiple foll

Developed country diets rich in sugar and fat contribute to obesity by affecting both peripheral organs and the brain's appetite regulation. We assessed how diet composition impacts mice's body mass, cognitive function, and metabolism. Our goal was to investigate how diet affects learning in mice and identify potential brain-regulating metabolites. Mice were fed four diets: standard diet (STAND), high-sugar & high-fat diet (HSD), high-fat diet (HFD), ketogenic diet (KD), and mouse weight and food intake were measured weekly. After 8 weeks of dietary feeding, the IntelliCage system was used