IntelliProfiler: a research workflow for analyzing multiple animals with a high-resolution home-cage RFID system
Unbiased, scalable behavioral phenotyping that captures multi-animal interactions in home-cage settings is increasingly needed. Here we present 'IntelliProfiler', a research workflow consisting of data processing scripts that extract locomotor activity and pairwise proximity from a commercially available, previously validated, high-resolution radio frequency identification floor plate. IntelliProfiler is not a standalone system; it operates on data acquired with the Phenovance floor plate and is not yet validated with other hardware configurations. The workflow reconstructs individual trajectories and positions of multiple mice, enabling long-term assessment of locomotor activity and social spacing. In proof-of-concept analyses, male mice placed in a novel cage environment maintained greater inter-animal distances than female mice, an effect that strengthened as group size increased. Aging reduced locomotor activity in a group size-dependent manner and altered proximity patterns. In addition, offspring of aged fathers (a paternal-aging autism spectrum disorder model) exhibited hyperactivity and increased social distance relative to controls, consistent with autism spectrum disorder-related phenotypes and motivating further investigations. Together, these findings demonstrate that IntelliProfiler workflow provides a practical and versatile approach for screening group dynamics and quantifying complex social behaviors in neuroscience research.
Authors
- Hitoshi Inada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6121-3830)
- Noriko Osumi
- Shohei Ochi
Institutions
- National Institutes of Natural Sciences (JP)
- Tohoku University (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Lab Animal
- Published
- 2026-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-025-01668-4
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 23.07
Funders
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Japan Science and Technology Agency