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Presentation

The Forced Swimming Test (or Porsolt Swimming Test) is a common behavioural test for assessing depression in rodents (typically rats or mice) and thus testing the efficiency of anti-depressants drugs and treatments.

Operating principle

During the Forced Swimming Test, animals are placed in acrylic glass cylinders, filled with water (23–25 °C) to a depth of 15 cm for 6 min. The water is changed between each animal. The water level in the glasses must be high enough to prevent the animal from touching the bottom of the cylinder with his paws or tail, and low enough to avoid an escape through the top opening of the cylinder. The animals are thus forced to swim in the cylinders.

Two types of behaviour can be observed during the Porsolt Test:

• Non-depressed rodents, even when unable to escape from the water-filled cylinders, will try to swim out of the containers.
  
• Depressed rodents will stop trying and float in the cylinders, showing behavioural despair.
  
  The floating or immobility time during the test is an accurate indication of the effects of anti-depressants.
  
  Automation
  
  Bioseb offers a powerful video-based motor activity analysis system for automating the Porsolt Swimming Test. Using the state-of-the-art digital imaging, our software solution is a flexible and easy to learn interface, which allows you to observe up to 6 animals simultaneously, where as a manual set-up would only allow the assessment of 2 animals at a time.
  
  Using this software, you'll be able to record the video of your trials, calculate the immobility time for each animal and export your results to any software of your choice for further analysis.
  
  Bioseb video solutions allow automatic computing of three parameters or states for the rat:
  
• Active (climbing)
  
• Non-active (immobility passive floating)
  
• Dipping
  As for the mouse, two paraneters or states can be computed automatically:
  
• Active (climbing)
  
• Non-active (immobility,passive floating)