title: The effects of the lurcher mutation on object localization, T-maze discrimination, and radial arm maze tasks.
abstract: The Lurcher mutation is characterized by degeneration of the cerebellar cortex and cerebellar ataxia. The mutants were compared to littermate controls of the same background strain in three spatial tasks: 1) left-right discrimination in a water-filled T-maze, a reference memory task requiring a win-stay strategy; 2) the radial arm maze, a working memory task requiring a win-shift strategy; 3) object localization, a reference memory task requiring the use of cognitive mapping. Lurcher mutants were impaired in the object localization and radial arm maze tasks but not in the left-right discrimination task. These results indicate that trial-independent tasks and reference memory tasks using cognitive mapping may be particularly vulnerable to cerebellar degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Université de Tours, EA Psychobiologie des émotions, Tours, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belzung
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chapillon
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lalonde
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002525:Cerebellar Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*