A

Partitioning variability in animal behavioral videos using semi-supervised variational autoencoders

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Abstract

Abstract Recent neuroscience studies demonstrate that a deeper understanding of brain function requires a deeper understanding of behavior. Detailed behavioral measurements are now often collected using video cameras, resulting in an increased need for computer vision algorithms that extract useful information from video data. Here we introduce a new video analysis tool that combines the output of supervised pose estimation algorithms (e.g. DeepLabCut) with unsupervised dimensionality reduction methods to produce interpretable, low-dimensional representations of behavioral videos that extract more information than pose estimates alone. We demonstrate this tool by extracting interpretable behavioral features from videos of three different head-fixed mouse preparations, as well as a freely moving mouse in an open field arena, and show how these interpretable features can facilitate downstream behavioral and neural analyses. We also show how the behavioral features produced by our model improve the precision and interpretation of these downstream analyses compared to using the outputs of either fully supervised or fully unsupervised methods alone.

Authors 17

  1. Matthew R Whiteway corresponding

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  2. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA

  4. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  5. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  6. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  7. Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, USA

  8. Champalimaud Foundation

    Affiliation as printed

    Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal

  9. Sainsbury Wellcome Centre · University College London

    Affiliation as printed

    Sainsbury-Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behavior, University College London, London, UK

  10. New York University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA

  11. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  12. Champalimaud Foundation

    Affiliation as printed

    Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal

  13. University College London

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, UK

  14. Leiden University

    Affiliation as printed

    Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

  15. New York State Psychiatric Institute · Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

    New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA

  16. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

  17. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute · Columbia University

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

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References 115