EthoTrace: from behaviour to neural dynamics in a unified analysis framework

Abstract

Understanding how neural populations support natural behaviour requires knowing what a population does while an animal performs a specific, self-initiated action. For responses evoked by an experimenter-delivered stimulus, the signal can be aligned by the trigger itself, and no behavioural scoring is needed to define the event. Complex behaviours such as parental care and social interaction provide no such trigger. They are defined from the video record, usually offline and post hoc, and are conventionally scored in one program and exported to another for analysis. In this study we developed EthoTrace, a single self-contained HTML file that runs in a desktop browser without installation, server or network access and carries a session from behaviour and calcium signal through to the statistical comparison. Behaviour is annotated on a timeline shared with the {Delta}F/F trace, the signal is corrected and scaled under a stated baseline convention, single bouts stay inspectable in their behavioural context, and repeated bouts are aligned without filling absent data. We demonstrate the complete workflow on a parenting behaviour experiment, in which behaviour was scored and the photometry signal analysed in a single session folder. We expect EthoTrace to facilitate integrative analysis in neuroscience, where behavioural observation and fiber photometry signals are interpreted together.