PHASE: An Open-Source Program for the Analysis of Phase, Activity, and Sleep Under Entrainment

Area of Science:

• Circadian Biology
• Chronobiology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Entrainment is crucial in circadian biology, with Drosophila melanogaster serving as a key model organism.
• Understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms of entrainment in Drosophila is ongoing.
• Current phase estimation and anticipation index measurements in Drosophila chronobiology can be subjective and vary between studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a flexible and objective analysis tool for Drosophila activity and sleep under entrainment.
• To integrate objective measures of activity peaks with sleep analysis in a single program.
• To provide a user-friendly platform for quantitative characterization of Drosophila circadian behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Development of PHASE, a MATLAB-based program.
• Implementation of a smoothing filter for objective identification of activity peaks.
• Analysis of activity and sleep parameters within user-defined diurnal cycle windows.
• Assessment of behavioral anticipation of environmental transitions.

Main Results:

• PHASE enables visualization and analysis of Drosophila activity and sleep under entrainment.
• The program objectively identifies and characterizes activity peaks using a smoothing filter.
• PHASE facilitates quantitative assessment of behavioral anticipation of light transitions.

Conclusions:

• PHASE offers an objective and integrated approach to analyzing Drosophila circadian rhythms.
• The tool addresses the need for more precise and consistent measurements in Drosophila chronobiology.
• PHASE can advance the study of molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying entrainment.