SynthesisBMC biology2023
A systematic review of the development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats.
Synthesis in BMC biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Activity as a readout parameter for neurobehavioral research and severity assessment in laboratory rodents: a systematic comparison and meta-analysis of measurement techniques.Scientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Environmental enrichment: a systematic review on the effect of a changing spatial complexity on hippocampal neurogenesis and plasticity in rodents, with considerations for translation to urban and built environments for humans.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- On the importance of including both sexes in animal studies - insights from home-cage monitoring.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Article
- A homecage operant paradigm reveals behavioral dynamics of social motivation in mice.Cell reports methods · 2026Article
- How to Make Your Fish Work for You: Tips from Ethology and Ecology for Finding Appropriate Unconditioned Stimuli for Learning Studies withAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Taurine Mitigates Microplastic-Induced Neurotoxicity Through Modulation of Neurobehavior, Neurotransmitters, Oxidative Stress, and AKT-1/CREB-1/BDNF Signaling in Mice.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Beyond single metrics: Multi-parameter home-cage monitoring improves welfare assessment.Laboratory animals · 2026Article
- Challenges and expectations on the use of automated home cage monitoring for advancing laboratory animal care and welfare.Laboratory animals · 2026Article
- Data welfare is animal welfare: Building a WellFAIR research ecosystem.Neuroscience applied · 2026Article
- Effects of Cage Change and Nest Transfer on Artificial Intelligence-Measured Behaviors in Male C57BL/6 Mice.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2026Article
- Appearance-based computer vision pipeline for multi-animal monitoring of canine activity, behavior and clinical observations.Frontiers in toxicology · 2026Article
- IntelliCage protocols using incentive-disincentive dual motivation work with male as well as female mice and reveal sex differences in motivated behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Role of Peptides in Skeletal Muscle Wasting: A Scoping Review.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Article
- Advocating for automation in animal research: using home cage monitoring to advance welfare, reproducibility and scientific openness.Disease models & mechanisms · 2025Article
- Article
- A framework for a low-cost system of automated gate control in assays of spatial cognition in fishes.Journal of fish biology · 2025Article
- Tracking conditioned fear in pair-housed mice using deep learning and real-time cue delivery.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- A circadian behavioral analysis suite for real-time classification of daily rhythms in complex behaviors.Cell reports methods · 2025Article
- Anterior cingulate cortex parvalbumin and somatostatin interneurons shape social behavior in male mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
30 authors at 19 institutions in 16 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTraditionally, in biomedical animal research, laboratory rodents are individually examined in test apparatuses outside of their home cages at selected time points. However, the outcome of such tests can be influenced by various factors and valuable information may be missed when the animals are only monitored for short periods. These issues can be overcome by longitudinally monitoring mice and rats in their home cages. To shed light on the development of home cage monitoring (HCM) and the current state-of-the-art, a systematic review was carried out on 521 publications retrieved through PubMed and Web of Science.
resultsBoth the absolute (~ × 26) and relative (~ × 7) number of HCM-related publications increased from 1974 to 2020. There was a clear bias towards males and individually housed animals, but during the past decade (2011-2020), an increasing number of studies used both sexes and group housing. In most studies, animals were kept for short (up to 4 weeks) time periods in the HCM systems; intermediate time periods (4-12 weeks) increased in frequency in the years between 2011 and 2020. Before the 2000s, HCM techniques were predominantly applied for less than 12 h, while 24-h measurements have been more frequent since the 2000s. The systematic review demonstrated that manual monitoring is decreasing in relation to automatic techniques but still relevant. Until (and including) the 1990s, most techniques were applied manually but have been progressively replaced by automation since the 2000s. Independent of the year of publication, the main behavioral parameters measured were locomotor activity, feeding, and social behaviors; the main physiological parameters were heart rate and electrocardiography. External appearance-related parameters were rarely examined in the home cages. Due to technological progress and application of artificial intelligence, more refined and detailed behavioral parameters have been investigated in the home cage more recently.
conclusionsOver the period covered in this study, techniques for HCM of mice and rats have improved considerably. This development is ongoing and further progress as well as validation of HCM systems will extend the applications to allow for continuous, longitudinal, non-invasive monitoring of an increasing range of parameters in group-housed small rodents in their home cages.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.