{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,28]],"date-time":"2026-10-28T18:38:55Z","timestamp":1793212735870,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":8,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778198400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Behav. Neurosci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>The tail suspension test (TST) is widely used to assess stress-coping behavior in rodents, characterized by alternating periods of active (struggling) and passive (immobile) responses. Immobility in the TST is interpreted as behavioral despair and serves as a key measure for screening antidepressant compounds. Traditional manual scoring is labor-intensive and temporally imprecise, while existing automated systems often misclassify behaviors and have not shown the capacity to integrate behavioral data with neural recording methods. Here, we improved upon the traditional TST with our new developed iMOSS (Immobility\/Mobility Optimized Scoring System)\u2014two open-source, low-cost, and scalable tools for high-resolution quantification of mobility and immobility: (1) iMOSS-MV, a video-based frame-by-frame manual-scoring software instrument designed to precisely annotate the exact onset frame for each binary event, and (2) iMOSS-AS, a sensor-based automated instrument detecting immobility\/mobility bouts from the sensor-signal using a machine-learning optimized detection threshold. The output from iMOSS-AS closely matched that from iMOSS-MV and outperformed other publicly available tools. Moreover, both systems reliably detected changes in mobility and immobility induced by imipramine treatment, demonstrating sensitivity to pharmacological manipulation. Finally, both iMOSS tools readily integrated with neural data, as shown by simultaneous analysis of medial septal glutamatergic calcium activity via fiber photometry. Thus, either iMOSS-MV or iMOSS-AS alone offers an efficient, user-friendly, and bias-minimized platform for high-throughput behavioral analysis, enabling seamless integration of behavioral and neural data in systems neuroscience research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1819512","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T05:55:20Z","timestamp":1778219720000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["iMOSS: an integrated open-source tail suspension test platform for high-resolution immobility scoring and synchronization with neural activity"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Zengyou","family":"Ye","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xia","family":"Min","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sarah T.","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuehong","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Molecular Cardiology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center","place":["Boston, MA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Satoshi","family":"Ikemoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e3769","DOI":"10.3791\/3769","article-title":"The tail suspension test.","volume":"59","author":"Can","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Vis. Exp."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1253","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2015.05.001","article-title":"Locomotion, theta oscillations, and the speed-correlated firing of hippocampal neurons are controlled by a medial septal glutamatergic circuit.","volume":"86","author":"Fuhrmann","year":"2015","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"332","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pbb.2006.08.016","article-title":"The usage of video analysis system for detection of immobility in the tail suspension test in mice.","volume":"85","author":"Juszczak","year":"2006","journal-title":"Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav."},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.3389\/fninf.2015.00007","article-title":"Bonsai: An event-based framework for processing and controlling data streams.","volume":"9","author":"Lopes","year":"2015","journal-title":"Front. Neuroinformatics"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"110212","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jneumeth.2024.110212","article-title":"A deep-learning-based threshold-free method for automated analysis of rodent behavior in the forced swim test and tail suspension test.","volume":"409","author":"Meng","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Neurosci. Methods"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1523\/ENEURO.0305-21.2021","article-title":"DBscorer: An open-source software for automated accurate analysis of rodent behavior in forced swim test and tail suspension test.","volume":"8","author":"Nandi","year":"2021","journal-title":"eNeuro"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4612-1302-4_8","article-title":"The septal region and social behavior","volume-title":"The Behavioral Neuroscience of the Septal Region","author":"Sheehan","year":"2000"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"659","DOI":"10.1016\/0278-5846(87)90002-9","article-title":"The automated tail suspension test: A computerized device which differentiates psychotropic drugs.","volume":"11","author":"Steru","year":"1987","journal-title":"Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1819512\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T05:55:20Z","timestamp":1778219720000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1819512\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"references-count":8,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1819512"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fnbeh.2026.1819512","relation":{},"ISSN":["1662-5153"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1662-5153","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"article-number":"1819512"}}