Eric S McCoy, Sang Kyoon Park, Rahul P Patel, Dan F Ryan, Zachary J Mullen, Jacob J Nesbitt, Josh E Lopez, Bonnie Taylor-Blake, Kelly A Vanden, James L Krantz, Wenxin Hu, Rosanna L Garris, Magdalyn G Snyder, Lucas V Lima, Susana G Sotocinal, Jean-Sebastien Austin, Adam D Kashlan, Sanya Shah, Abigail K Trocinski, Samhitha S Pudipeddi, Rami M Major, Hannah O Bazick, Morgan R Klein, Jeffrey S Mogil, Guorong Wu, Mark J Zylka
Facial grimacing is used to quantify spontaneous pain in mice and other mammals, but scoring relies on humans with different levels of proficiency. Here, we developed a cloud-based software platform called PainFace (https://painface.net) that uses machine learning to detect 4 facial action units of the mouse grimace scale (orbitals, nose, ears, whiskers) and score facial grimaces of black-coated C57BL/6 male and female mice on a 0 to 8 scale. Platform accuracy was validated in 2 different laboratories, with 3 conditions that evoke grimacing-laparotomy surgery, bilateral hindpaw injection of carrageenan, and intraplantar injection of formalin...
February 13, 2024: Pain