Introducing CNN-Based Mouse Grim Scale Analysis for Fully Automated Image-Based Assessment of Distress in Laboratory Mice

Abstract

International standards require close monitoring of distress of animals undergoing laboratory experiments in order to minimize the stress level and allow choosing minimally stressful procedures for the experiments. Currently, one of the the best established severity assessment procedures is the mouse grimace scale (MGS), a protocol in which images of the animals are taken and scored by assessing five key visual features that have been shown to be highly correlated with distress and pain. While proven to be highly reliable, MGS assessment is currently a time-consuming task requiring manual video processing for key frame extraction and subsequent expert grading. Additionally, due to the the high per-picture expert time required, MGS scoring is performed on a small number of selected frames from a video. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a method for fully automated real-time MGS scoring of orbital eye tightening, one of the five sub-scores. We define and evaluate the method which is centered around a set of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and allows live continuous MGS assessment of a mouse in real time. We additionally describe a multithreaded client-server architecture with a graphical user interface that allows convenient use of the developed method for simultaneous real-time MGS scoring of several animals.