title: Effects of spatial and cognitive enrichment on activity pattern and learning performance in three strains of mice in the IntelliMaze.
abstract: The IntelliMaze allows automated behavioral analysis of group housed laboratory mice while individually assigned protocols can be applied concomitantly for different operant conditioning components. Here we evaluate the effect of additional component availability (enrichment) on behavioral and cognitive performance of mice in the IntelliCage, by focusing on aspects that had previously been found to consistently differ between three strains, in four European laboratories. Enrichment decreased the activity level in the IntelliCages and enhanced spatial learning performance. However, it did not alter strain differences, except for activity during the initial experimental phase. Our results from non-enriched IntelliCages proved consistent between laboratories, but overall laboratory-consistency for data collected using different IntelliCage set-ups, did not hold for activity levels during the initial adaptation phase. Our results suggest that the multiple conditioning in spatially and cognitively enriched environments are feasible without affecting external validity for a specific task, provided animals have adapted to such an IntelliMaze.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Novum Floor 5, Stockholm, Sweden. alina.codita@ki.se
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Codita
authors.forename: Abdul H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Mohammed
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Willuweit
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reichelt
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alleva
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Branchi
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cirulli
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colacicco
authors.forename: Vootele
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Voikar
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Wolfer
authors.forename: Frank J U
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Buschmann
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Lipp
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vannoni
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krackow
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006799:Housing, Animal; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D013045:Species Specificity