Ognjanovski, N.; Ghimire, A.; Hale, P.; Kim, D.; Cerda, I. H.; Goldiez, E.; Marino, S.; Green, A.; Fitzgerald, P.; Vijayakumar, P.; Kirca, D.; Tong, M.; Muscat, N.; Cook, M.; Knopf, K.; Tang, M.; Chen, Y.; Bueno-Junior, L. S.; Weston, R.; Liu, T.-Y.; Hartner, J.; Dinov, I.; Watson, B. O.

The Digital Homecage (DHC) allows uninterrupted, long-timescale recording of more than 20 behavioral metrics in single-housed mice, captured at sub-second resolution via video, operant interactions, and wheel-running data. This report demonstrates the DHC\'s capacity to enable continuous, automated tracking of behaviors like actigraphy, sleep, grooming, and food choice options over weeks, thereby opening up new avenues for longitudinal analyses of chronic conditions. Data collected reveal circadian patterns in multiple spontaneous behaviors, aligning with known nocturnal tendencies. The system\'s potential to facilitate groundbreaking observations on the long-term behavioral correlates of various neuropsychiatric syndromes is aided by open-source software and relatively low cost. The DHC sets the stage for community-driven innovation, potentially transforming our approach to studying complex traits of brain function and behavior in laboratory settings.