Abstract

Open Science has changed research by making data accessible and shareable, contributing to replicability to accelerate and disseminate knowledge. However, for rodent cognitive studies the availability of tools to share and disseminate data is scarce. Automated touchscreen-based tests enable systematic cognitive assessment with easily standardized outputs that can facilitate data dissemination. Here we present an integration of touchscreen cognitive testing with an open-access database public repository (mousebytes.ca), as well as a Web platform for knowledge dissemination (https://touchscreencognition.org). We complement these resources with the largest dataset of age-dependent high-level cognitive assessment of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, expanding knowledge of affected cognitive domains from male and female mice of three mouse strains. We envision that these new platforms will enhance sharing of protocols, data availability and transparency, allowing meta-analysis and reuse of mouse cognitive data to increase the replicability/reproducibility of datasets.

Data availability

Automated quality control (QC) algorithm and the codes are available for free download and modification in GitHub https://github.com/srmemar/Mousebytes-An-open-access-high-throughput-pipeline-and-database-for-rodent-touchscreen-based-dataThe touchscreen processed data were deposited into an open-access application (http://www.mousebytes.ca/).

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Flavio H Beraldo

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Daniel Palmer

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Sara Memar

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. David I Wasserman

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Wai-Jane V Lee

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Shuai Liang

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Samantha D Creighton

    Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Benjamin Kolisnyk

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Matthew F Cowan

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Justin Mels

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Talal S Masood

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  12. Chris Fodor

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  13. Mohammed A Al-Onaizi

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  14. Robert Bartha

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  15. Tom Gee

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  16. Lisa M Saksida

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    Lisa M Saksida, consults for Campden Instruments, Ltd.
  17. Timothy J Bussey

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    Timothy J Bussey, consults for Campden Instruments, Ltd.
  18. Stephen S Strother

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  19. Vania F Prado

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  20. Boyer D Winters

    Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
    For correspondence
    bwinters@uoguelph.ca
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  21. Marco A M Prado

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    For correspondence
    mprado@robarts.ca
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3028-5778

Funding

Weston Brain Institute

  • Robert Bartha
  • Stephen S Strother
  • Boyer D Winters
  • Marco A M Prado

Canada Open Neuroscience Platform

  • Sara Memar
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Marco A M Prado

Mitacs

  • Daniel Palmer
  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey

CIFAR

  • Lisa M Saksida

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP136930)

  • Marco A M Prado

Alzheimer's Society

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canada First Research Excellence Fund (BrainsCAN)

  • Robert Bartha
  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Brain Canada

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP126000)

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP89919)

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Vania F Prado

Canada Research Chairs

  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Marco A M Prado

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Procedures were conducted in accordance with approved animal protocols at the University of Western Ontario (2016/104) and the University of Guelph (3481) following the Canadian Council of Animal Care and National Institutes of Health guidelines.

Copyright

© 2019, Beraldo et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Flavio H Beraldo
  2. Daniel Palmer
  3. Sara Memar
  4. David I Wasserman
  5. Wai-Jane V Lee
  6. Shuai Liang
  7. Samantha D Creighton
  8. Benjamin Kolisnyk
  9. Matthew F Cowan
  10. Justin Mels
  11. Talal S Masood
  12. Chris Fodor
  13. Mohammed A Al-Onaizi
  14. Robert Bartha
  15. Tom Gee
  16. Lisa M Saksida
  17. Timothy J Bussey
  18. Stephen S Strother
  19. Vania F Prado
  20. Boyer D Winters
  21. Marco A M Prado
(2019)
MouseBytes, an open-access high-throughput pipeline and database for rodent touchscreen-based cognitive assessment
eLife 8:e49630.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49630

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49630