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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.11.13.688005

Paw posture is a robust indicator for injury, pain, and age.

Pritz, C. O.·Dotta, S.·Freund, P. A.·Musso, G.·Bader, M.·Okladnikov, N.·Rother, F.·Marvaldi, L.
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Abstract

Inferring biological states from animal behavior is a crucial but challenging step in biomedical discovery that is constrained by variability and labour-intensive assays, even with AI-powered tools. Here, we show that simple images of static paws, analyzed by our custom keypoint segmentation AI-tool provide accurate read-outs for a wide array of physiological states. Without invasive testing, our method detects postural changes associated with nerve injury, acute pain, aging, and the genetic loss of kpna4, a regulator of paw innervation. Leveraging the toe-spread-reflex, a spinal-circuit driven response, the approach requires no habituation and shows low behavioral variability. Individual digits emerge as biomarkers for internal states with digit V indicating neuropathic pain during nerve damage and digit I reflecting loss of kpna4. Our model is freely available and can readily be adapted to other tasks or species. These findings establish unstimulated paw posture as a scaleable, low-cost, readout for biological states.

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Pritz, C. O., Dotta, S., Freund, P. A., Musso, G., Bader, M., Okladnikov, N., Rother, F., Marvaldi, L.. 2025-11-13. Paw posture is a robust indicator for injury, pain, and age.. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.13.688005

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