A novel control condition for spatial learning in the Morris water maze
| Autor: | Sean Commins, Daniel N. Barry |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Male
0301 basic medicine Computer science Spatial Learning Morris water navigation task Neuropsychological Tests Escape latency Machine learning computer.software_genre 03 medical and health sciences Neural activity 0302 clinical medicine Swimming behaviour Animals Rats Wistar Maze Learning Control (linguistics) Training period Behavior Animal business.industry General Neuroscience Rats 030104 developmental biology Research Design Escape platform Spatial learning Artificial intelligence business computer Psychomotor Performance 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 318:1-5 |
| ISSN: | 0165-0270 |
| Popis: | Background: Assessing markers of neural activity in rodent behavioural tasks benefits from meaningful comparison with matched control conditions. The Morris water maze is a widely used learning and memory task, but currently implemented control conditions are not optimal. New method: We created a novel control condition involving random escape platform placement for each trial, while increasing the frequency of platforms throughout the training period. These control rats could therefore escape the maze by swimming in a random fashion and were not required to learn a platform location. Crucially, because the number of available escape platforms increased throughout training, their escape latencies should decline in line with rats who were learning a fixed platform location. Results: No evidence of place learning was observed in this novel condition, but their swimming behaviour, including escape latency, distance and velocity were well matched to spatially-trained rats throughout training. Further, they did not display stress-related behaviour. Comparison with existing methods: We contrasted this new control condition against a frequently used control where animals swim freely in the maze and showed behaviour was more closely matched to spatially-trained animals. Conclusions: This novel control condition represents a significant advance from those currently available and may assist in the interpretation of task-related neural activity. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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