title: Navigation with two landmarks in rats (Rattus norvegicus): the role of landmark salience.
abstract: In two experiments, male and female rats were trained in a Morris pool in the presence of 1 (Experiment 1) or 2 (Experiment 2) landmarks, which were placed relatively close in relation to a hidden platform. Experiment 1 established the relative salience of 3 landmarks. Two of them revealed a similar salience, and smaller than a third one, the most salient landmark, both in training and on a test trial without the platform. Then in Experiment 2 rats were extensively trained to find a hidden platform in the presence of a configuration formed by 2 landmarks and the effects of varying the salience of one of the landmarks were studied. Subsequent test trials without the platform revealed that finding the platform was controlled by different strategies and that the rats were taking advantage of this redundancy depending on the nature of the test trials. Surprisingly, in Experiment 2 a clear sex difference was found on escape trials only, with males reaching the platform faster than females.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), Department of Basic Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rodrigo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), Department of Basic Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona.
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gimeno
authors.affiliation: Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), Department of Basic Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona.
authors.forename: Meritxell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayguasanosa
authors.affiliation: Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3C), Department of Basic Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona.
authors.forename: Victoria D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Chamizo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats / Q000502:physiology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012737:Sex Factors; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D065853:Spatial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*