Age-dependent impairment of delay and trace eyeblink conditioning in mice.
The age effect on classical eyeblink conditioning in unrestrained mice (C57BL/6J strain) was evaluated. Mice were trained at one of three age periods (8, 45-50 or 85-90 weeks). In the delay paradigm, significant learning deficits were evident in the 85-90 week-old group, but no deficits were observed in the behavior of the 45-50 week-old group. On the other hand, in the trace paradigm with a stimulus-free trace interval of 500 ms, significant deficits became apparent at the age of 45-50 weeks. These results indicate that trace eyeblink conditioning is more susceptible to age-related deterioration of memory in mice than delay eyeblink conditioning.
Kishimoto
Y
Y
Laboratory of Neurobiophysics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Suzuki
M
M
Kawahara
S
S
Kirino
Y
Y
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology