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The key to automating the Forced swim test is determining what’s struggling versus swimming versus treading water versus floating
Using ANY-maze you simply need to determine immobility sensitivity and duration and ANY-maze will automatically discriminate the periods of mobility and immobility for you. Get all the details on the Benefits tab below.
On the other tabs you'll find recommended equipment and a list of results that are especially useful in the forced swim test.
Detecting Immobility
In this video ANY-maze is detecting periods when the animal stops struggling for one second or more.
The results will report, amongst other things, the time the animal was mobile and the time it was immobile (i.e. time struggling and time not struggling).
Immobility detection can be adjusted
Immobility detection in ANY-maze is based on immobility sensitivity (exactly how still the animal has to be) and immobility time (how long it has to stay that way).
In the FST, it’s common to define immobility as the time that the animal spends not making any movements beyond those required to keep its head above water – which would require both immobility sensitivity and time to be set to relatively low values.
And you can change these settings at any time, even after a test is completed. ANY-maze simply re-analyses the data it collected during the tests, which allows you to tease out differences it would be impossible to gather manually.
Testing in multiple apparatus simultaneously
Tracking simultaneously in, for example, four FST tanks is a great way to speed up the throughput in an experiment.
- Setting up multiple tanks is hardly any more work than setting up one, as most settings are automatically applied across all the apparatus.
- You can have a single camera for each tank, or you can have multiple tanks viewed by the same camera, or any combination – for example, two cameras each viewing two tanks.
- Tests in all the apparatus can be run independently, or you can control them together if you prefer.
Analysis across time
ANY-maze can analyse most results across time. For example, the image on the right shows a plot of time immobile, based on 30 second time segments and shows how in this experiment, the animals tended to struggle less during the second half of the test.
Results
ANY-maze can provide literally hundreds of results for any test, but some of those that are commonly used in the Forced swim test include:
- Time mobile
- Time immobile
- Immobile episodes
- Total distance travelled
Detecting Immobility
In this video ANY-maze is detecting periods when the animal stops struggling for one second or more.
Forced swim test tank
We manufacture our own forced swim test tank, which is suitable for both rats and mice.
The tank has convenient carrying handles, a centre drain and a valve for water level adjustment and initial emptying.
Cameras
USB camera
The ANY-maze USB camera is an excellent choice for the Forced swim test. We recommend fitting this camera with a varifocal (zoom) lens, so you can zoom in and out, which is especially useful if you're viewing more than one apparatus with the same camera.
View more
Web cam
A web cam provides an inexpensive alternative to the ANY-maze camera. You usually can't zoom webcam lenses, but if you're able to adjust the distance of the camera from the apparatus, then a webcam should work well. Another potential issue is the cable length; most webcams have quite short cables.
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Find more Forced swim test publications that used ANY-maze on Google Scholar