Development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats: a systematic review

We are conducting a systematic review on home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats. A major advantage of home cage monitoring is that the animals can be examined in their home environment, which reduces stress and allows to monitor the animals 24/7. Moreover, this approach minimizes the influence of the human presence on the animals’ behavior. Therefore, home cage-based monitoring is interesting for phenotyping in mice and rats since it may reduce data variability and improve reproducibility. In addition, it can provide a useful tool for welfare assessment. The requirements for home cage monitoring changed over the last decades driven by technology and digitalization. The goal of this systematic review is to identify these historical changes and describe the current state of the art.