Learned helplessness, developed in the 1970s by Seligman, refers to the behavioral consequences of repeated exposures to stressful events over which the organism has no control.

La prueba de suspensión de la cola se desarrolló como una alternativa a la prueba de Natación Forzada, pero el concepto sigue siendo el mismo.

The forced swimming test is a relatively simplistic and widely used model for testing depression. The forced-swimming paradigm was originally adopted by Porsolt et al. (1978). Naïve rats and mice forced to swim in a transparent cylinder (aversive and confined environment) innately fight to escape the apparatus. Following failed attempts to escape, they become immobile (i.e. float), a behavior generally considered as despair or “depressive-like”. Prior treatment with antidepressants decreases the time spent immobile and increases the latency to reach the first immobility episode.

We provide several different sized transparent cylinders for the forced swimming test. All cylinders are made of Perspex Acrylic.

One relatively simplistic and widely used model of depression is the forced-swimming paradigm originally adopted by Porsolt et al. (1978).

The social interaction test by pairs provides a popular and standard paradigm to study general social behavior.

The Geller-Seifter paradigm is a conflict model in which prior food-deprived rodents have to “choose” between consuming food and avoiding the punishment associated with this consumption.

The Vogel test paradigm is a popular conflict model in which water-deprived rats and mice first learn to lick from a water spout in an operant chamber.

The holeboard test is mainly used for assessing exploratory behaviors in rodents.

The elevated-O-maze is a modification of the plus-maze and displays the advantage of lacking the ambiguous central area of the elevated plus-maze.

The Black and white test (also named light-dark test) is based on the conflict of natural tendencies of rodents to avoid lighted and open areas and to explore novel environments.