Genetic and environmental correlations between brain weight and maze learning in inbred strains of mice and their F1 hybrids.
The relationships among body weight, cerebellum weight, cerebrum weight, maze-learning ability in a double T-maze, and discrimination learning in a Y-maze were studied in six inbred strains of mice and some of their F1 hybrids. The subjects were 131 male albino mice from 14 genotypic groups: five inbred groups and nine groups of crossbred offspring. Intra- and intergroup correlations were computed between all possible pairs of the anatomical and behavioral traits. A significant difference between the intragroup and intergroup correlations for any pair of variables was taken to indicate the presence of a genetic correlation between the two variables. On this basis, positive genetic correlations were indicated between T-maze learning ability and Y-maze learning ability, between body weight and T-maze learning ability, and possibility between body weight and both cerebellum and cerebrum weight and between cerebrum weight and T-maze learning ability. Negative genetic correlations were indicated between cerebellum weight and running time in both mazes and between total number of successes in the Y-maze and Y-maze running time.
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009929:Organ Size; D011930:Reaction Time