title: Jumping Stand Apparatus Reveals Rapidly Specific Age-Related Cognitive Impairments in Mouse Lemur Primates.
abstract: The mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) is a promising primate model for investigating normal and pathological cerebral aging. The locomotor behavior of this arboreal primate is characterized by jumps to and from trunks and branches. Many reports indicate insufficient adaptation of the mouse lemur to experimental devices used to evaluate its cognition, which is an impediment to the efficient use of this animal in research. In order to develop cognitive testing methods appropriate to the behavioral and biological traits of this species, we adapted the Lashley jumping stand apparatus, initially designed for rats, to the mouse lemur. We used this jumping stand apparatus to compare performances of young (n = 12) and aged (n = 8) adults in acquisition and long-term retention of visual discriminations. All mouse lemurs completed the tasks and only 25 trials, on average, were needed to master the first discrimination problem with no age-related differences. A month later, all mouse lemurs made progress for acquiring the second discrimination problem but only the young group reached immediately the criterion in the retention test of the first discrimination problem. This study shows that the jumping stand apparatus allows rapid and efficient evaluation of cognition in mouse lemurs and demonstrates that about half of the old mouse lemurs display a specific deficit in long-term retention but not in acquisition of visual discrimination.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de psychopathologie et de neuropsychologie, E.A. 2027, Université Paris 8, 2 rue de la liberté, 93000 St Denis, France.|Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay UMR 9199, Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.|Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), Département des Sciences du Vivant (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), MIRCen, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Picq
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7179, MNHN, Adaptive Mechanisms and Evolution (MECADEV), 1 Av du petit château, 91800 Brunoy, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Villain
authors.affiliation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay UMR 9199, Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.|Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), Département des Sciences du Vivant (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), MIRCen, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gary
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7179, MNHN, Adaptive Mechanisms and Evolution (MECADEV), 1 Av du petit château, 91800 Brunoy, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pifferi
authors.affiliation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay UMR 9199, Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.|Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), Département des Sciences du Vivant (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), MIRCen, F-92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dhenain
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004215:Distance Perception / Q000502:physiology; D007900:Lemur / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology