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PubMed1986

[Effects of maternal alcohol exposure during gestation and/or lactation periods on radial-maze learning in offspring rats].

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of maternal alcohol (15%) exposure during the gestation and/or lactation periods on learning of an 8-arm radial maze by rat offspring. Acquisition of the maze learning was found to be profoundly retarded only in the offspring of mothers treated with alcohol during gestation. This result could not be explained by a secondary effect of malnutrition produced by the alcohol treatment, because body weight increase in the offspring was suppressed by the alcohol treatment during lactation but not during gestation. The possibility of involvement of deficits in brain development (especially of the hippocampus) in the learning impairment was discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Dietary restriction: effects on radial maze learning and lipofuscin pigment deposition in the hippocampus and frontal cortex.

Previous studies have shown increased life span and decreased lipofuscin deposition in brain structures when both premature and young adult animals are calorically restricted of an otherwise nutritionally adequate diet. Three-months-old C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 12 months of caloric restriction (2 g/day), and subsequently exposed to a radial maze learning paradigm. Mice in the diet restriction group showed faster learning and higher asymptotic performance on the radial maze task, as well as lower lipofuscin deposition in the neurons of hippocampus and frontal cortex relative to control mice fed ad libitum. The results suggest that dietary restriction has effects on radial maze learning, and this improved behavioral performance was associated with significant reduction in lipofuscin pigment deposition in the neurons of hippocampus and frontal cortex.

Aging↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Complex maze learning in rodents as a model of age-related memory impairment.

Research is reviewed concerning the age-related learning deficit observed in a 14-unit T-maze (Stone maze). Rats and mice of several strains representing different adult age groups are first trained to criterion in one-way active avoidance in a straight runway. Then training in the Stone maze is conducted which involves negotiation of five maze segments to avoid footshock. Results indicate a robust age-related impairment in acquisition observed in males and females, and in outbred, inbred, and hybrid strains. Pharmacological studies using the muscarinic antagonist, scopolamine, in young and aged rats indicate cholinergic involvement for accurate encoding during acquisition of this task. Retention aspects of storage and retrieval do not appear to be affected by scopolamine treatment. Bilateral electrolytic lesions to the fimbria-fornix of young rats also produce an acquisition deficit to implicate involvement of the septo-hippocampal cholinergic system in Stone maze learning. A salient feature of Stone maze performance is the tendency to demonstrate an alternation strategy in solving the maze. This strategy is exacerbated by impairment of cholinergic neurotransmission with either scopolamine treatment or fimbria-fornix lesions. Various models of hippocampal function are applied toward the psychological characterization of the Stone maze task without complete success. Future research is outlined to provide more thorough psychological characterization of maze performance, to analyze the specificity of cholinergic involvement in the task, and to test possible therapeutic interventions for alleviating the age-related impairments observed.

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PubMed1990

Mice selectively bred for an open field activity increase after maze learning.

A unidirectional selective breeding experiment performed over six generations resulted in a line of mice (S6), which differed from the maintained unselected Swiss albino strain, called normal (N) strain, in the following respects: S6 mice increased their open field activity after maze learning significantly more than N mice. S6 mice ambulated more and exhibited more thigmotactic behaviour in a circular open field than N mice. S6 mice were superior than N mice in regard to maze learning capacity. Finally, S6 mice were interpreted as significantly less emotional according to their defecation, more responsive to novelty according to their urine pattern and more aggressive than N mice.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Plasma concentrations of alpha-melanotropin in the rat during the acquisition and extinction of conditioned avoidance behaviour and during the acquisition of maze learning behaviour.

Concentrations of immunoassayable alpha-melanotropin in plasma were increased above control levels during the acquisition of conditioned avoidance behaviour but not during the extinction of this behaviour. There were no significant variations in levels of alpha-melanotropin in plasma during the acquisition of reward motivated maze learning behaviour. Throughout the latter test hormone concentrations were increased above normal levels. Non-specific stress was thought to be an important factor in the production of increases in concentrations of alpha-melanotropin in plasma. Acute physical stress, such as that caused by the electric foot shock of the avoidance studies, produced the greatest increases, while the smaller increase noted during maze learning was attributed to the stress of the chronic food deprivation schedule used in this test. The data did not support a role for systemic melanotropin in the processes of learning and memory as there were no consistent correlations between levels of alpha-melanotropin in plasma and the parameters of learning in the tests. Although a role for stress-induced alpha-melanotropin release from the pituitary gland in the enhancement of attention was thought possible, actions of exogenous melanotropins on behaviour could be due to effects on melanotropin-containing systems present within the central nervous system.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Lashley maze learning deficits in NZB mice.

In a prior study we found excellent Lashley III maze learning in BXSB mice and poor learning in NZB mice, despite the fact that both strains are autoimmune and develop cortical ectopias. This prompted us to examine NZB Lashley maze performance in detail, including comparisons to other strains and attempts to improve performance by giving additional trials with or without additional intramaze visual cues. In conventional Lashley testing (10 trials), RF mice (non-autoimmune and nonectopic) and BXSBs performed well in the Lashley maze. They had high learning indices and few errors. NZB mice performed poorly, with low learning indices and many errors. Even with additional trials or additional trials plus intramaze cues, NZB performance remained poor. The number of backward and forward errors stayed high; learning indices were low. Since both BXSB and NZB mice develop autoimmune disorders and cortical ectopias, it is unlikely that differential Lashley performance is the result of the presence of these phenomena. NZB mice are known to have alterations in their hippocampal morphology, and this is a possible mediator of the Lashley deficit.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Impact of age and situation-specific experience on maze learning and learning-sensitive open-field parameters in mice.

The effects of age and situation-specific experience on maze learning and learning-sensitive open-field parameters (OFP) in Swiss albino male mice were studied. We tested the mice longitudinally by means of repeated measures and in cross-section by taking independent samples between the ages of 1-16 months. Mice with situation-specific experience improved their performance up to the age of 11 months. For mice lacking prior experience there was a trend toward impaired performance with regard to error scores and running times with increasing age. The ages of 1, 8, and 10 months were most favorable for the occurrence of quantitative maze learning-sensitive OFP changes, and the ages of 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13 months were most favorable for the appearance of qualitative changes. The effect of situation-specific experience was interpreted as indicative of decreased emotionality but increased reactivity to novel stimuli or enhanced territorial behavior at the age of 16 months.

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PubMed1993

A study of behavioral and sensorial bases of radial maze learning in mice.

In order to analyze the various sensorial and behavioral modes implied in learning on a radial maze, three isogenic mice groups (BALB/C, C57BL/6, and CB6F1) were subjected to four different learning procedures, each ending with a probe test. These four procedures examined the use of radial strategies and allowed to dissociate the use of olfactory and spatial cues. Results showed that all mice preferred to use a radial strategy. When the confinement procedure rendered the use of a radial strategy impossible, BALB/C mice were incapable of establishing spatial orientation but were able to learn the task by using olfactory cues. C57BL/6 mice, on the other hand, seemed to use spatial cues exclusively, while the CB6F1 hybrids showed a high degree of plasticity, using either type of information. These strain-specific differences point out the heterogeneity of the processes called into play during radial maze learning and show that unless olfactory cues are carefully controlled they can account for choice accuracy in some mice.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

'Return to home cage' as a reward for maze learning in young and old genetically heterogeneous mice.

Recent studies have shown that 'return to home cage' can serve as a reward for maze learning in adult male mice. The present study examined whether the same reward is an effective motivator of learning in young and old mice and included females in the study design. We tested 25- and 65-d-old HS mice and 85- and 800-d-old B6D2F2 mice in a Lashley III maze. Return to home cage motivated maze acquisition in all groups. Compared with 65-d-old HS mice, 25-d-olds acquired the maze more slowly, took longer to achieve the test criterion, and showed increased latency to reach the goal box. There was no difference between 85- and 800-d-old B6D2F2 mice in rate of acquisition. This reward procedure may reduce the potentially confounding effects of deprivation or aversive stimuli on maze performance and may be suitable as a motivational procedure for a wide range of subject groups.

Aging↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Disconnection analysis of CA3 and DG in mediating encoding but not retrieval in a spatial maze learning task.

The dentate gyrus (DG) subregion of the hippocampus has been shown to be involved in encoding but not retrieval in a spatial maze task (modified Hebb-Williams maze). The first experiment in this study examined whether a lesion to the CA3 would contribute to a similar encoding deficit. A DG group was included in order to replicate previous results. Relative to controls, animals receiving CA3 lesions were impaired in encoding, not retrieval, on the modified Hebb-Williams maze--similar to a group that received DG lesions. This suggests the possibility that CA3 and DG are working together to mediate encoding processes. The second experiment in this study was designed to test the interaction between CA3 and DG using a disconnection paradigm. Animals with contralateral lesions (CA3 lesioned in one hemisphere, DG lesioned in the other hemisphere) showed a significant disruption effect on encoding, but not retrieval, when compared with animals with ipsilateral lesions (CA3 and DG lesioned in the same hemisphere, leaving the other hemisphere intact). This suggests an interaction between CA3 and DG in supporting encoding but not retrieval processes in a spatial maze learning task.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Prior non-spatial pretraining eliminates sensorimotor disturbances and impairments in water maze learning caused by diazepam.

Diazepam has been reported to impair spatial learning in the water maze. This experiment reexamined this topic using control groups that had first been non-spatially pretrained to familiarize them with the general behavioral strategies required in the water maze task. Naive rats given diazepam (0.5, 3.0, 6.0 mg/kg, IP) displayed dose-related maze acquisition impairments and sensorimotor disturbances (swimming in the periphery of the pool, deflecting off or swimming over the hidden platform, jumping off the platform when placed there after a trial, ataxia on a narrow wooden beam). The sensorimotor disturbances interfered with the acquisition of information about the spatial location of the platform, occurred in the absence of impairments in a subsequent visible platform task or swim speed, and correlated strongly with measures of acquisition. In contrast, the non-spatially pretrained groups did not exhibit sensorimotor disturbances in the water maze and acquired the maze task as rapidly under diazepam as control rats. The non-spatially pretrained groups continued to display diazepam-induced sensorimotor disturbances (ataxia) in a novel beam walking task. CGS8216 (10.0 or 20.0 mg/kg), a benzodiazepine receptor antagonist, attenuated the effect of 3.0 or 6.0 mg/kg diazepam in naive rats, suggesting that the effects of diazepam were mediated by benzodiazepine receptors. Occupancy of benzodiazepine receptors by diazepam does not prevent robust spatial learning in the water maze.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

[Deficits of Morris water maze learning in rats with striatal kainic acid lesions].

This study investigated effects of intrastriatal kainic acid administration, which induces selective neuronal cell death in the striatum sparing passing nerve fibers and terminals, on the acquisition of spatial learning in Morris water maze. Rats treated with bilateral kainic acid (0.5-1.0 microgram) into the striatum were trained to escape to a hidden platform under the water. Compared with control rats, kainic acid (1.0 microgram)-lesioned rats showed significantly longer escape latency in the place navigation, and in the following probe test lower rate of swimming within the quadrant where the platform had been placed. In addition, kainic acid (1.0 microgram)-lesioned rats showed longer latency in the cue navigation in which rats were trained to escape to a visible platform above the water. These deficits were caused by their tendency to swim along the wall of pool before approaching the platform and not by their swim difficulty. Results suggest that striatal neurons or neural circuits containing these neurons play an important role in the acquisition of spatial learning task, and the nature of this performance impairment was discussed in terms of both learning and attention deficits.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Benzodiazepine receptors increase induced by stress and maze-learning performance in chick forebrain.

Two-day-old chicks were selected on their second escape performance in a one-trial, maze-learning task, and termed high-performance (H-P), moderate-performance (M-P), and low-performance (L-P) chicks. The learning degree was expressed by the escape time improvement being respectively the 64, 46, and 24%. Then, the three selected groups were maintained to reach 15 days of age and then submitted to acute swimming stress, and [3H]flunitrazepam and [3H]Ro 5-4864 receptor bindings were performed on synaptosomal/mitochondrial membranes from forebrain. The receptor number for both radioligands in stressed high-performance chicks was significantly higher than in stressed low-performance chicks. The results suggest that higher performance chicks were more susceptible than lower performance chicks to acute stress associated to increase of both central and peripheral type benzodiazepine receptors, probably due to differences in the degree of endogenous emotionality.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

The effects of postoperative physical environment on novelty seeking behaviour and maze learning in rats with hippocampal lesions.

The effects of different postoperative physical environments on novelty seeking and maze learning were tested in rats that sustained dorsal hippocampal lesions at 30 days. After surgery, rats were isolated for one month, either with objects or without objects in their cages. All rats were moved daily to new cages and observed during the first 5 min; during these periods, sham-operated rats and rats with lesions interacted similarly with their environment. At the end of the differential housing period, rats were tested for their reactions towards a novel object introduced to their familiar environment (test 1) and towards a novel environment they were free to explore or to avoid (test 2). In test 1, rats with lesions made more contacts with the novel object than did intact rats, and rats previously housed with objects, whether they sustained lesions or not, climbed on the novel object more often than rats reared without objects. In test 2, rats with lesions made no clear distinction between the novel and familiar environments irrespective of their postoperative treatment; in contrast, intact rats housed with objects differed from intact rats housed without objects in their preference for the novel and familiar environments and in the locomotor activity they displayed in these environments. Following these two tests, learning performance was assessed in an 8-arm radial maze. Rats with lesions made more errors than the intact rats, and within the rats with lesions those reared with objects tended to make fewer errors than those reared without objects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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PubMed1990

Parkinson's disease patient's behaviour in a covered maze learning task.

A computerized maze task was constructed that allowed only partial vision of the maze structure and produced measurements for separate analysis of cognitive processes described as impaired in Parkinson's disease. Eighteen patients suffering from mild Parkinson's disease and 18 individually matched normal controls were investigated. Baseline task response times were found to be identical for both groups. Differences between patients' and controls' performance could be related to (a) a response bias in Parkinson patients that favoured repetition of the previous action and slowed down shifting and (b) an impairment of multistep plan generation. It is speculated that the response bias reflects the disinhibition of cortico-thalamo-cortical reverberation loops which results from striatal dopamine depletion.

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PubMed1996

Maze learning by honeybees.

This study examines whether honeybees can learn to fly through complex mazes, in the presence or the absence of specific visual cues. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Bees can learn to fly through a complex maze by following a trail of colored marks. 2. Bees, initially trained to follow color marks through an initial part of the maze, are immediately able to use the same sign-tracking cue to find their way through the rest of the maze, which is unfamiliar to them. 3. Bees trained to follow color marks through a particular maze can use the same cue to negotiate a novel maze. 4. Bees trained to use a particular color to negotiate a maze can immediately use a novel color to negotiate the same maze or even a novel maze. 5. After learning to negotiate a maze by following colored marks, bees can find their way through the maze even when the marks are removed, albeit at reduced levels of accuracy. Thus, the trained bees do not rely solely on sign-tracking to find their way through the maze: they also acquire a spatial memory of the maze or at least a sequence of motor commands describing the correct path through it. 6. Bees can learn to use color as a signal even when it indicates the path through the maze in a symbolic way, for example, blue indicating a turn to the right and green a turn to the left. 7. Bees can learn an unmarked maze. Performance under these conditions is poorer than when marks are provided, but is still significantly better than chance level. 8. Control experiments rule out the use of external landmarks in all of these situations.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Home-cage open-field ambulation after maze learning in mice.

The present paper indicates that it is with appropriate methods, i.e., maze learning and a not-previously used home-cage open-field, possible to observe a learning-induced ambulation increase in a familiar environment lacking novel cues. This finding is at variance with an earlier one achieved by electromagnetic recordings indicating a decrease in activity in the home-cage after passive avoidance conditioning.

Animals↗