Reproducibility and replicability of rodent phenotyping in preclinical studies

Neri Kafkafi*, Joseph Agassi, Elissa J. Chesler, John C. Crabbe, Wim E. Crusio, David Eilam, Robert Gerlai, Ilan Golani, Alex Gomez-Marin, Ruth Heller, Fuad Iraqi, Iman Jaljuli, Natasha A. Karp, Hugh Morgan, George Nicholson, Donald W. Pfaff, S. Helene Richter, Philip B. Stark, Oliver Stiedl, Victoria StoddenLisa M. Tarantino, Valter Tucci, William Valdar, Robert W. Williams, Hanno Würbel, Yoav Benjamini

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The scientific community is increasingly concerned with the proportion of published “discoveries” that are not replicated in subsequent studies. The field of rodent behavioral phenotyping was one of the first to raise this concern, and to relate it to other methodological issues: the complex interaction between genotype and environment; the definitions of behavioral constructs; and the use of laboratory mice and rats as model species for investigating human health and disease mechanisms. In January 2015, researchers from various disciplines gathered at Tel Aviv University to discuss these issues. The general consensus was that the issue is prevalent and of concern, and should be addressed at the statistical, methodological and policy levels, but is not so severe as to call into question the validity and the usefulness of model organisms as a whole. Well-organized community efforts, coupled with improved data and metadata sharing, have a key role in identifying specific problems and promoting effective solutions. Replicability is closely related to validity, may affect generalizability and translation of findings, and has important ethical implications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)218-232
Number of pages15
JournalNeuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Volume87
Issue numberApril
Early online date31 Jan 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2018

Funding

This work is supported by European Research Council grants FP7/2007-2013 ERC agreement no [294519]-PSARPS (YB, NK, IG, IJ), by NIH AA018776 (EJC), by NIH DA045401 (YB, NK) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence programme SEV2013-0317 start-up funds to AGM). We thank Prof. Allan Kalueff for many useful comments. This paper is the result of a scientific meeting in Tel Aviv University. Videos of the full lectures can be accessed at the following links. 1. Yoav Benjamini: “Assessing Replicability in One Own's Lab: A Community Effort” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Q4GWkJicE&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=15 . 2. Elissa J. Chesler: “Finding Consilience in Genetic and Genomic Analyses of Behavior” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9TdNXipRPQ&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=20 . 3. John C. Crabbe: “Managing Sources of E to Address GXE” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7R2iZfjydA&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=4 . 4. Wim E. Crusio: “What do We Want to Reproduce?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZuEZw8mDjY&index=6&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 5. David Eilam: “Variability: A By-Product Noise or an Essential Component of Motor Behavior” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADgVHDFZpUg&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=7 . 6. Robert Gerlai: “Behavioral Phenotyping: The Double Edged Sword” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrNz0PTKc4&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=9 . 7. Ilan Golani: “Replicability as a Virtue” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRSxpA8qZY&index=10&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&spfreload=10 . 8. Alex Gomez-Marin: “Toward a Behavioral Homology Between Insects and Rodents” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8PwdKap3k&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=25&spfreload=10 . 9. Ruth Heller: “Assessing Replicability Across Laboratories: The R-Value” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2uGOp9yLMw&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=22 . 10. Fuad Iraqi: “TAU Collaborative Cross Mice a Powerful GRP for Dissection Host Susceptibility to Diseases” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV62o7Ubrfg&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=21 . 11. Natasha A. Karp: “Simulation Studies to Investigate Workflow and its Impact on Reliability of Phenodeviant Calls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5wTrgXvsAY&index=17&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 12. Neri Kafkafi: “The Random Lab Model for Assessing the Replicability of Phenotyping Results Across Laboratories” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsQawSBA6Vc&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=12 . 13. George Nicholson & Hugh Morgan: “The Empirical Reproducibility of High-Throughput Mouse Phenotyping” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzrrP6_F8r8&index=18&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 14. Donald W. Pfaff: “Application of Strict Methodology and Applied Mathematical Statistics to Mouse Behavioral Data” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB0FnO9evbY&index=8&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 15. Philip B. Stark: “Preproducibility for Research, Teaching, Collaboration, and Publishing” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHryMtEBkB4&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=13 . 16. Oliver Stiedl: “Individuality of Avoidance Behavior of Mice in an Automated Home Cage Environment” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUIgRW5luZY&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=24 . 17. Victoria Stodden: “Computational and Statistical Reproducibility” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzrOcqz8TVY&index=14&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 18. Valter Tucci: “Phenotyping Behaviour Across Laboratories and Across Mouse Strains” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTlsFaj62oQ&index=22&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 19. William Valdar & Lisa M. Tarantino: “The Effect of Genetic Background on Behavioral Variability: Implications for Replicability?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63sgLO4Hd04&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP&index=5 . 20. Robert W. Williams: “Data Rescue for Replication: Finding, Annotating, and Reusing Data for the BXD Mouse Cohort” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goocssSA33g&index=19&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP . 21. Hanno Würbel & S. Helene Richter: “On Standardization and Other Fallacies in Animal Phenotyping” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfW35740q3k&index=11&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg74GlfLNyAcTo-TshyAcdLP .

FundersFunder number
National Institutes of HealthDA045401, AA018776
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and AlcoholismU01AA013519
Seventh Framework Programme294519
European Research Council
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

    Keywords

    • Data sharing
    • False discoveries
    • GxE interaction
    • Heterogenization
    • Replicability
    • Reproducibility
    • Validity

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