IntelliCage

New Standard for Rodents Behavioral & Cognitive Phenotyping

Automated Group Housing with Individual Data Collection

IntelliCage is a fully automated system allowing you to assess home cage behavior and cognitive performance of up to 16 mice or 8 rats respectively while preserving social interaction. This unique experimental setup fosters natural social behavior in a biologically relevant, enriched and highly standardized home cage context. Therefore, IntelliCage minimizes handling and human intervention, increasing task validity, data reproducibility and ensuring a high level of animal welfare.

To provide a greater control over animal movement between the IntelliCage and external compartments, like running wheels or metabolic cages, we offer our sophisticated animal gate. Conditionally manage access based on individual animal identification and programmable protocols, streamline your research workflows while minimizing stress on your subjects.

Hardware Blueprint for Diverse Experiments

4 operant conditioning corners
With dual liquid reward, sensors and actors, each corner has a built-in RFID antenna to identify animal presence. Each corner can accommodate one mouse at a time.
Special lid holder for easy cleaning during the long-term experiments
Central compartment
Spacious central compartment with food grid and shelter, mice used to rest and sleep in red houses.
Each corner is equipped with two motorized doors to give and close access to the drinking bottle

Benefits Compare to Classic Systems

The IntelliCage system is a versatile platform for studying a broad spectrum of rodent behaviors. From spontaneous activity/circadian rhythms to spatial preferences/corner exploration patterns, or intricate patrolling behaviors, IntelliCage offers a comprehensive overview. This innovative system promotes greater data consistency across laboratories compared to traditional method. IntelliCage measures similar traits assessed in classic open-field tests and Morris water maze experiments, excelling in exploration and locomotor activity analysis. Automated and standardized measurements ensure higher data reproducibility across labs, allowing researchers to focus on interpreting meaningful behavioral patterns.

Locomotor and Exploratory Activity

The IntelliCage excels in exploratory behavior and locomotor activity assessments compared to traditional tests. Classic methods show data variability, leading to complex strain-by-laboratory interactions. IntelliCage providis automated and standardized measurements, ensuring higher data reproducibility accross sdifferent labs.

Spatial Learning

The system effectively measures spatial learning through paradigms similar to the Morris water maze test, but with significant time-saving benefits. Our research demonstrates a remarkable decrease in workload – up to 40 times faster than traditional methods – allowing researchers to conduct more experiments and expedite discoveries.

Social Behavior

IntelliCage facilitates the exploration of social interactions between rodents. By capturing parameters like spatial preferences and corner visitation patterns, researchers can gain valuable insights into social dynamics and communication within rodent groups.

Locomotor and Exploratory Activity

Modified from Lipp et al., 2005

Spatial Learning

Social Behavior

Unique features

Group Housing of 16 Mice or 8 Rats in a Social Home Cage Environment

24/7 Continuous Testing During Light/Dark Phases for Days or Weeks

Transfer of Validated Behavioral Paradigms into an Automated Setup

Reduced Required Resources: Multiple Paradigms & Minimum Human Interference

High Throughput Screening: accommodates 64 mice or 32 rats across four cages

Customizable Experimental Setups

Diverse Behavioral Paradigms

Spontaneous Behavior

Spatial and Temporal Behavior

Discrimination Learning and Preferences

Social Interaction, including Competition and Hierarchy Analysis

Operant Conditioning

Diverse Learning and Memory tasks

IntelliCage Software for Efficient Studies

The IntelliCage software suite offers a comprehensive solution for researchers conducting automated behavioral studies in a social environment. Comprised of three distinct modules, this software facilitates efficient experimental design, precise execution, and robust data analysis.

  • Cluster Configuration
  • Behavioral Event Mapping
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Modular Flexibility
  • Automated Day Patterns
  1. Defines the parameters of experimental hardware configuration.
  2. Creates a comprehensive list of individual specifics, including ID, transponder number, sex, group, and assigned cluster.
  3. Crafts experimental designs with one or multiple phases tailored to research needs.
  • Captures and stores behavioral events (visits, nose pokes, licks) and environmental data (lighting, temperature) from the sensor data stream.
  • Allows real-time monitoring of data from various sensors and actors.
  • Tracks individual animal behavioral parameters in graphs.
  • Enables alerts when specific animals show no visits or licks during designated periods.
  • Filters data with boolean reporters to focus on specific timing or conditions.
  • Evaluates filtered data with access to the original dataset.
  • Offers applied filters for future analyses across multiple experiments.
  • Saves image files in various formats.
  • Allows data export for analyses in statistic programs.

Publications

Kahnau, P., Jaap, A., Diederich, K., Gygax, L., Rudeck, J., & Lewejohann, L. (2023). Determining the value of preferred goods based on consumer demand in a home-cage based test for mice. Behavior Research Methods, 55(2), 751–766.

Kiryk, A., Janusz, A., Zglinicki, B., Turkes, E., Knapska, E., Konopka, W., Lipp, H.-P., & Kaczmarek, L. (2020). IntelliCage as a tool for measuring mouse behavior – 20 years perspective. Behavioural Brain Research, 388, 112620.

Mohammadi, F., Bertrand, N., & Rudkowska, I. (2023). C57bl/6 Mice Show Equivalent Taste Preferences toward Ruminant and Industrial Trans Fatty Acids. Nutrients, 15(3), Article 3.

Pagano, R., Salamian, A., Zielinski, J., Beroun, A., Nalberczak-Skóra, M., Skonieczna, E., Cały, A., Tay, N., Banaschewski, T., Desrivières, S., Grigis, A., Garavan, H., Heinz, A., Brühl, R., Martinot, J.-L., Martinot, M.-L. P., Artiges, E., Nees, F., Orfanos, D. P., … Radwanska, K. (2023). Arc controls alcohol cue relapse by a central amygdala mechanism. Molecular Psychiatry, 28(2), Article 2.

Plum, T., Binzberger, R., Thiele, R., Shang, F., Postrach, D., Fung, C., Fortea, M., Stakenborg, N., Wang, Z., Tappe-Theodor, A., Poth, T., MacLaren, D. A. A., Boeckxstaens, G., Kuner, R., Pitzer, C., Monyer, H., Xin, C., Bonventre, J. V., Tanaka, S., … Rodewald, H.-R. (2023). Mast cells link immune sensing to antigen-avoidance behaviour. Nature, 1–9.

IntelliCage data have been published in over 500 peer-reviewed articles, including publications in PNAS, Molecular Psychiatry or Nature Communications. The IntelliCage allows a transfer of validated behavioral paradigms into an automated setup, complementing usual behavioral testing procedures.

“The Intellicage system is a great ethological platform providing high-throughput standardized quantification of the home-cage behavior of group-housed mice during circadian cycle. This allows good data comparability and reproducibility, and there is a high flexibility in the protocols to analyze both spontaneous and conditioned responses. In this socially-enriched and ethically-compliant environment, complex behaviors are recorded without major bias due to experimenter intervention and without stress compared to standard tests in which mice stand alone.”

Dr. Cyrille Vaillend
PI (DR1) | NeuroPSI Institute, Paris Saclay University

“…our laboratory has 6 IntelliCages along with add-ons (2 social boxes). I have more than 5 years of experience with this system and can provide only positive feedback regarding IntelliCage. Both hardware and software are reliable, in addition support by TSE is excellent. The system offers a great flexibility in design of various experiments…”

Dr. Vootele Voikar
University of Helsinki

“Following or avoiding other mice in corner visits” … “this is the first method that permits the mapping of the social networks of mice and the effects of those social networks on reward-induced behaviors”

Parkitna et al
PloS One 2014

“We are excited to be using the Intellicage system from TSE to further our understanding of legacies of stress. Being able to perform experiments with minimal experimenter-associated interference has elevated our portfolio of behavioral neuroscience approaches.”

Prof. Brian G. Dias, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics | University of Southern California

“IntelliCage plays a pivotal role in our translational research on Autistic spectrum disorder. We can assess 11 clinically relevant traits in mice within 2 months and screened 8 ASD models so far. This revealed shared (e.g., dominance) and model-specific (e.g., restrictive movement patterns) traits across models, foundational in ongoing drug development, highlighting the immense role IntelliCage plays preceding clinical trials.”

Seico Benner
Senior Researcher | NIES/Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan

Compatible with

Running Wheels

Automated wheels for voluntary or active exercise tests in mice or rats, including workload module for resistance running.

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PhenoMaster

Metabolic cage system for mouse, rat or larger animals. Suitable for calorimetry, behavioral and physiological studies.

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Stellar Telemetry

Multichannel implantable telemetry for In-vivo monitoring of physiological parameters.

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NeuroLux

Wireless battery-free optogenetics system for freely moving animals in any setup.

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Center of Knowledge

IntelliCage blog posts

Delving Deeper: IntelliCage Fat Mouse Corner and its Impact on Obesity Research

Obesity, a global health concern, presents a significant risk factor for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. Preclinical research utilizing obese mouse models plays a crucial…

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Exploring Cognitive Aging: Insights from different Studies in Rodent Models Using the IntelliCage System

Life expectancy has increased greatly over the last decades, but it has been associated with a progressive rise in the incidence of age-related diseases, including…

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The Power of The Hippocampus: Uncovered Stress-Induced Memory Enhancements

The exciting study titled “Hippocampal Mechanisms Support Cortisol-Induced Memory Enhancements” Hippocampal Mechanisms Support Cortisol-Induced Memory Enhancements | Journal of Neuroscience (jneurosci.org) explores the intricate link…

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