Passive avoidance and complex maze learning in the senescence accelerated mouse (SAM): age and strain comparisons of SAM P8 and R1.
Two strains of the senescence accelerated mouse, P8 and R1,were tested in footshock-motivated passive avoidance (PA; P8, 3-21 months; R1, 3-24 months) and 14-unit T-maze (P8 and R1, 9, and 15 months) tasks. For PA, entry to a dark chamber from a lighted chamber was followed by a brief shock. Latency to enter the dark chamber 24 hours later served as a measure of retention. Two days of active avoidance training in a straight runway preceded 2 days (8 trials/day) of testing in the 14-unit T-maze. For PA retention, older P8 mice entered the dark chamber more quickly than older R1 mice, whereas no differences were observed between young P8 or R1 mice. In the 14-unit T-maze, age-related learning performance deficits were reflected in higher error scores for older mice. P8 mice were actually superior learners; that is, they had lower error scores compared with those of age-matched R1 counterparts. Although PA learning results were in agreement with other reports, results obtained in the 14-unit T-maze were not consistent with previous reports of learning impairments in the P8 senescence accelerated mouse.
Spangler
Edward L
EL
Behavior Neuroscience Section, Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
Patel
Namisha
N
Speer
Dorey
D
Hyman
Michael
M
Hengemihle
John
J
Markowska
Alicja
A
Ingram
Donald K
DK
D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains