TST Score Helper: An Open-Source Graphical User Interface for Assisted Manual Scoring of the Tail Suspension Test

Screenshots of the TST Score Helper GUI's (A) settings page and (B) rescore page.

Comparison of scoring using the traditional manual stopwatch method versus the TST Score Helper GUI program in score mode. A, Relationship between immobility times (seconds) assessed by the two different methods on n = 71 TST trials. The dashed line denotes the line of unity. B, Bland–Altman plot of the scoring method agreement. The horizontal axis denotes the mean of the two immobility times, and the y-axis denotes the difference. The solid black horizontal line denotes y = 0. The solid red horizontal line represents the mean difference between the scorers, and the dotted red horizontal lines represent the limits of agreement, which are calculated as 1.96 × standard deviation of the mean difference between scores.

Interscorer reliability of tail suspension test (TST) immobility timing. A, Relationship between the immobility times (seconds) assessed by two independent scorers on n = 109 TST trials. The dashed line denotes the line of unity. B, Bland–Altman plot of the interscorer agreement. The horizontal axis denotes the mean between the two scorers’ immobility times and the y-axis denotes the difference. The solid black horizontal line denotes y = 0. The solid red horizontal line represents the mean difference between the scorers, y = 4.4. Dotted red horizontal lines represent the limits of agreement, y = −30.4 and y = 39.2, which are calculated as 1.96 × standard deviation of the mean difference between scorers.

Disagreement between scorers on tail suspension test (TST). For all plots, data from two scorers on 109 TST trials evaluated with the TST Score Helper GUI in score mode were used. A, Histogram of disagreements, i.e., the total length of segments within a TST trial (in seconds) that one scorer assessed as immobile and the other scorer assessed as mobile. B, Histogram of the difference in total immobility time between two scorers. C, Histogram of the number of disagreement clips of duration indicated on the x-axis across trials. For each 5 s bin, the bar represents the mean number of disagreement clips in that length range across all trials, and the whiskers represent one standard deviation above the mean. D, Scatterplot of disagreements versus the difference in total immobility time between two scorers. The dashed line denotes the line of unity.