Big Behavioral Data: Psychology, Ethology and the Foundations of Neuroscience

Abstract

Behavior is a unifying organismal process through which genes, neural function, anatomy and environment converge and interrelate. Here we review the current state and sketch the future impact of accelerating advances in technology for behavioral studies, focusing on rodents as an exemplar. We frame our analysis in three dimensions: (1) degree of experimental constraint, (2) dimensionality of data, and (3) level of description. We argue that ethomics, fueled by \"big behavioral data\", presents challenges proportionate to its promise and describe how these challenges might be met through opportunities afforded by the two rival conceptual legacies of 20th century behavioral science, ethology and psychology. We conclude that although \"ethomes\" are not the goal, big behavioral data has the potential to transform and unify these two disciplines and to solidify the foundations of others, including neuroscience, particularly if the data is as open as it is copious and quantitative.