title: Dissociation of impairment between spatial memory, and motor function and emotional behavior in aged rats.
abstract: We investigated changes in learning and memory in aged rats, in relation to motor function and emotional behavior. Male Kbl Wistar aged rats (108-weeks-old) were divided into two groups, memory impaired and non-impaired, based on performance during six training trials in the Morris water maze task. Aged rats with a goal latency longer than the mean plus the 99% confidence limit of young rats, were regarded as memory impaired, whereas those with a goal latency within the range of the 99% confidence limit of the mean of young rats, were considered as memory non-impaired. Although the performance of the memory impaired aged rats in the standard test of the Morris water maze improved after six re-training trials to the level of the non-impaired aged rats and young rats, working memory impairment was evident. There were no differences in motor function and emotional behavior between the impaired and non-impaired aged rats. These results suggest that deficits of learning and memory in memory impaired aged rats can be dissociated from changes in motor function and emotional behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyagawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukuta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amano
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nabeshima
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*