Exponential data-analysis of passive-avoidance behavior in rats and mice.
Data obtained with the passive-avoidance task are usually presented as the median values of the latencies to respond. In an earlier publication we described a better way of presenting such data based on the observation that the complement of the cumulative distribution of step-through latencies can be closely fitted by a simple exponential function. Thus the "step-through rate constant" (STRC) is concise and accurate quantitative description of population behavior in this test. In this paper we present two examples of the application of this procedure. In the first, variation in the interval between training and testing in rats changes the STRCs of the different groups. In the second (based on data published by Flood et al.) administration of cycloheximide is seen to partition the experimental population of mice into two subgroups with different STRCs.
Allweis
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Department of Physiology, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Chernichovsky
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Shulz
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D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003513:Cycloheximide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors
D003513:Cycloheximide