Movement analysis of medaka (oryzias latipes) for an insecticide using decision tree

Abstract

Behavioral sequences of the medaka (Oryzias latipes) were continuously investigated through an automatic image recognition system in response to medaka treated with the insecticide and medaka not treated with the insecticide, diazinon (0.1 mg/1) during a 1 hour period, The observation of behavior through the movement tracking program showed many patterns of the medaka. After much observation, behavioral patterns were divided into four basic patterns: active-smooth, active-shaking, inactive-smooth, and inactive-shaking. The "smooth" and "shaking" patterns were shown as normal movement behavior. However, the "shaking" pattern was more frequently observed than the "smooth" pattern in medaka specimens that were treated with insecticide. Each pattern was classified using a devised decision tree after the feature choice. It provides a natural way to incorporate prior knowledge from human experts in fish behavior and contains the information in a logical expression tree. The main focus of this study was to determine whether the decision tree could be useful for interpreting and classifying behavior patterns of the medaka. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.