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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

The Mouse Forced Swim Test

The Mouse Forced Swim Test

Published on: January 29, 2012

Automated experimental system capturing three behavioral components during murine forced swim test.

Etsuko Hayashi¹, Midori Shimamura, Kazuyoshi Kuratani

¹Pharmacology Department, Tsukuba Research Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, 42 Wadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 300-4247, Japan.

|December 22, 2010

Summary

An automated system accurately measures mouse behavior in the forced swim test (FST). This technology efficiently detects antidepressant effects, with climbing behavior showing higher sensitivity than immobility.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Behavioral Science

Background:

The forced swim test (FST) is a standard behavioral paradigm for evaluating antidepressant-like effects in rodents.
Traditional FST analysis relies on manual observation, which can be time-consuming and prone to inter-observer variability.
There is a need for automated, objective methods to quantify behavior during the FST.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and validate an automated experimental system for simultaneous measurement of immobility, swimming, and climbing in the murine FST.
To assess the system's accuracy by comparing automated analysis with manual scoring.
To evaluate the effects of four common antidepressants on these behaviors using the automated system.

Main Methods:

A commercially available video image analyzer was integrated into an automated system for FST analysis.

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A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 5, 2026

The Mouse Forced Swim Test

The Mouse Forced Swim Test

Published on: January 29, 2012

The Forced Swim Test as a Model of Depressive-like Behavior

The Forced Swim Test as a Model of Depressive-like Behavior

Published on: March 2, 2015

A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice

A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice

Published on: March 2, 2019

System validation involved comparing automated measurements with manual scoring for immobility, swimming, and climbing in control and imipramine-treated mice.

Four antidepressants (imipramine, desipramine, bupropion, fluvoxamine) were administered at varying doses (15, 30, 60 mg/kg) to assess their effects on behavior.

Main Results:

The automated system demonstrated high correlation with manual scoring for all three behaviors (immobility: 0.96, swimming: 0.83, climbing: 0.94).
All four tested antidepressants significantly reduced immobility and increased climbing behavior within a 2-4 minute analysis window.
Desipramine and bupropion also significantly increased swimming behavior, while imipramine and fluvoxamine did not.

Conclusions:

The developed automated system provides an efficient and accurate method for analyzing multiple behavioral components in the FST.
Climbing behavior emerged as a potentially more sensitive indicator of antidepressant-like effects compared to immobility in this automated system.
This technology facilitates more objective and high-throughput screening of potential antidepressant compounds.