Measurement notes
Predefine immobility, struggling, climbing, and escape attempts. Strains that climb their tails or show high baseline movement need explicit exclusion or anti-climb procedures before analysis.
Endpoint methods library
Stress-coping behavior endpoint
Tail suspension immobility
Duration spent immobile while a mouse is suspended by the tail during a defined scoring window.
Unit
seconds or percent session time
Readout
Time spent immobile during tail suspension
Assays
Tail suspension test, antidepressant pharmacology, stress-coping screens
Decision summary
Use tail suspension immobility for mouse stress-coping or antidepressant pharmacology studies when strain, tail-climbing risk, tape setup, and welfare monitoring are controlled. Do not describe immobility as depression without companion behavioral context.
| Primary value | Time spent immobile during tail suspension |
|---|---|
| Common units | Seconds, percent session time, latency, bout count |
| Compatible assays | Tail suspension test, antidepressant pharmacology, stress-coping screens |
| Required boundary | Suspension setup, immobility threshold, session length, and tail-climbing rule |
| Do not infer alone | Depression, despair, motor fatigue, or antidepressant effect without controls |
Interpretation limit
Longer immobility can reflect passive coping, sedation, low arousal, tail discomfort, strain behavior, or fatigue. Shorter immobility can reflect motor stimulation or escape behavior rather than a specific antidepressant-like response.
Data capture
Store animal ID, suspension height, tape position, tail length used, session duration, immobility time, struggling time, latency, climb events, fall events, scorer ID, and exclusion notes.
Confound checks
- Tail-climbing or escape behavior differs by strain or setup.
- Tape placement, suspension height, or sensor threshold changes movement detection.
- Drug effects on arousal, locomotion, pain sensitivity, or motor tone.
- Tail injury, discomfort, body weight, age, sex, or strain influences struggling.
- Different scoring thresholds for small movements, swinging, or rotations.
Reporting checklist
- Suspension apparatus, height, tape method, session length, and anti-climb setup.
- Immobility definition, scoring method, blinding, and movement threshold.
- Latency, total immobility, bout structure, climb events, falls, and exclusions.
- Treatment timing, habituation, prior stress exposure, and handling conditions.
- Strain, sex, age, body weight, tail condition, and welfare monitoring.
- Companion endpoints such as open-field distance, forced swim, sucrose preference, or grooming.
References
Evidence notes
Endpoint pages should cite the method literature behind the scored value and keep high-specificity protocol claims qualified unless the source supports them.
Related workflow paths
Endpoint articles link to adjacent products, software workflows, and sibling endpoints where the connection is useful and already routable.
Tail suspension test calculator
Summarize immobility, latency, bout structure, climb flags, and exclusions.
Distance traveled endpoint
Check locomotor and arousal effects before interpreting immobility changes.
Forced swim immobility calculator
Compare immobility across stress-coping assays while keeping task caveats separate.
