High-Resolution Descriptions of Social Behavior in Rats and Their Deficits in Genetic Models of ASD

While rats offer a unique opportunity to study social behavior in a well-characterized and tractable model system, most descriptions tend to be subjective, anecdotal, or derived from a narrow set of behavioral assays. Extending a recently developed 3D tracking method to multiple animals (social-DANNCE), we provide an unbiased and quantitative description of social interactions in rats and pinpoint social deficits in rat models of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).