title: Effect of Food Deprivation on a Delayed Nonmatch-to-place T-maze Task.
abstract: Food deprivation can affect performance on difficult cognitive task, such as the delayed nonmatch-to-place T-maze task (DNMT). The importance of food deprivation on maintaining high motivation for DNMT task has been emphasized, but not many studies have investigated the optimal conditions for depriving rodents to maximize performance. Establishing appropriate conditions for food deprivation is necessary to maintain DNMT task motivation. We applied different conditions of food deprivation (1-h food restriction vs. 1.5-g food restriction; single caging vs. group caging) and measured body weight and the number of correct choices that 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice made during the DNMT task. The 1.5-g food restriction group maintained 76.0±0.6% of their initial body weight, but the final body weight of the 1-h food restriction condition group was reduced to 62.2±0.8% of their initial body weight. These results propose that 1.5-g food restriction condition is effective condition for maintaining both body weight and motivation to complete the DNMT task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Hae
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Seo-Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Ye-Seul
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hye-Ryeon
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Bong-Kiun
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Kaang
keywords: cognitive ability; delayed nonmatch-to-place T-maze task; food deprivation; motivation