3 ms·
"The tested for depression using a standard swim test method, which basically works by dropping the rodents into a container of water and measuring how long the
by MrQuincle 11y ago
"The tested for depression using a standard swim test method, which basically works by dropping the rodents into a container of water and measuring how long they frantically splash around to try to get out. Depressed mice give up more quickly."
I don't know if that is the best unit test.
- qwtel 11y agomaybe there muscles are just weaker? maybe there muscles are weaker because they are depressed, or they are depressed because their muscles are weak
- pygy_ 11y agoNo, Interleukine 1 causes depression-like symptoms in normal mice (they give up sooner), but not in mice KO for the IL-1 receptor in the blood-brain barrier.
- StanislavPetrov 11y agoReading this article about the various ways "scientists" tortured mice in order to draw completely meaningless, subjective conclusions about nothing makes me depressed.
- patall 11y agoThese "scientists" try to understand depression in order to help people. If you do not want that you do not have to take the mediciation. Contrarily, I would. And that you call this torture is a simple case of you mocking every person who has ever been really tortured. These experiment are undertaken with extrem precaution and after a paper trail that can be measured in trees. On the other hands, mice that are killed by pesticides usually die of internal bleeding. That is torture.
- douche 11y agoOr the millions of mice that find their way into the blades of combines in wheat and corn fields...
- droithomme 11y agoIt sure is close to the old time ordeal by water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_ordeal#By_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_ordeal#By_water
- 0xcde4c3db 11y agoThe idea that it's a useful model of depression is more conjecture than anything else. I think at this point it's mostly used for the sake of comparison with all the other experiments that used it.
- nsedlet 11y agoYeah, it seems like you could more reasonably conclude from a failed swim test that a mouse was tired, not depressed. So isn't an equally valid conclusion just that the illness-induced cytokine-blocking makes you feel tired? That doesn't seem as interesting! We all know that when we're sick, we often feel tired.