Parenting is an ethologically relevant social behavior consisting of stereotypic components involving the care and nourishment of young. First-time rodent dams seek and gather wandering/scattered pups back to the nest (pup retrieval), an essential aspect of maternal care. Over the decades, qualitative observations of the behaving animal have been presented in quantitative discrete units. However, systematic analysis of the dynamic sequences of goal-related movements that comprise the entire behavioral sequence, which would be ultimately essential for understanding the underlying neurobiology, is usually not analyzed. Here, we present systematic analysis of pup retrieval behavior across three days in alloparental female mice (Surrogates or Sur) of two genotypes; Mecp2Heterozygotes (Het), a female mouse model for a neuropsychiatric disorder called Rett syndrome and their wild type (WT) siblings. Additionally, we analyzed CBA/CaJ and C57BL/6J WT surrogates for within-strain comparisons. Frame-by-frame analysis over different phases was performed manually using DataVyu software. We previously showed that Het are inefficient, by measuring latency and errors, at pup retrieval. Here, we show that the sequence of searching, pup-approach and good retrieval crystallizes over time for WT; this sequence does not crystallize in Het. We found that goal-related movements of Het in different phases were similar to WT, suggesting context-driven atypical dynamic patterns in Het. We also identified pup approach and pup grooming as atypical tactile interactions between pups and Het, which contribute to inefficient pup retrieval. Day-by-day analysis showed dynamic changes in goal-related movements in individual animals across genotypes and strains in response to the growing pups. Overall, our approach 1) embraces natural variation in individual mice on different days of pup retrieval behavior, 2) establishes a gold-standard manually curated dataset to next build behavioral repertoires using machine learning approaches, and 3) identifies distinct atypical tactile sensory processing in a female mouse model for Rett syndrome.

中文翻译：

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Rett综合征的雌性小鼠模型中母性行为期间与目标相关的运动序列的系统分析

育儿是一种与伦理学相关的社会行为，由涉及年轻人照料和营养的定型观念组成。首次啮齿类动物水坝寻找并收集流浪/分散的幼崽回到巢穴（幼崽取回），这是孕产妇保健的重要方面。几十年来，对行为动物的定性观察已经以定量的离散单位呈现。但是，通常不分析对与目标有关的运动的动态序列的系统分析，这些运动包括整个行为序列，而这对于理解基础神经生物学最终必不可少。在这里，我们目前对两种基因型的同种异体雌性小鼠（Surrogates或Sur）在三天内对幼犬取回行为的系统分析。Mecp2杂合子（Het），一种称为Rett综合征及其野生型（WT）兄弟姐妹的神经精神疾病的雌性小鼠模型。此外，我们分析了CBA / CaJ和C57BL / 6J WT替代品以进行菌株内比较。使用DataVyu软件手动执行不同阶段的逐帧分析。先前我们通过测量小狗检索时的等待时间和错误显示，Het效率低下。在这里，我们显示了随着时间的流逝，搜索，pup-appachach和良好的检索的顺序逐渐明确。该序列在Het中不会结晶。我们发现，与目标相关的Het在不同阶段的运动与WT类似，表明Het中上下文相关的非典型动态模式。我们还确定了幼崽的进场和幼崽修饰是幼崽和Het之间的非典型触觉相互作用，这会导致幼崽的检索效率低下。日常分析显示，随着幼崽的生长，个体动物在跨基因型和品系的目标相关运动的动态变化。总体而言，我们的方法1）包含幼鼠取回行为不同天的个体小鼠的自然变异，2）建立使用机器学习方法建立下一个行为标准库的金标准手动管理数据集，以及3）识别不同的非典型触觉感觉处理Rett综合征的雌性小鼠模型。