1. Definition of a new maze paradigm for the study of spatial behavior in rats
- Author
-
Arnaud Cressant, Sylvie Granon, Rétrovirus et Transfert Génétique, Institut Pasteur [Paris]-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Récepteurs et Cognition (RC), Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut Pasteur [Paris]-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Male ,[SDV.NEU.NB]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Neurobiology ,Cholinergic blockade ,Water maze ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Task (project management) ,0302 clinical medicine ,MESH: Behavior, Animal ,MESH: Animals ,MESH: Brain Chemistry ,[SDV.NEU.PC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Psychology and behavior ,Behavior, Animal ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,[SDV.NEU.SC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Cognitive Sciences ,MESH: Neuropsychological Tests ,MESH: Reproducibility of Results ,Cholinergic Fibers ,Cues ,Psychology ,psychological phenomena and processes ,Cognitive psychology ,medicine.drug ,MESH: Rats ,MESH: Space Perception ,MESH: Orientation ,Spatial Behavior ,MESH: Psychomotor Performance ,03 medical and health sciences ,MESH: Rats, Long-Evans ,MESH: Spatial Behavior ,Orientation ,Oasis maze ,Scopolamine ,medicine ,Animals ,Rats, Long-Evans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Spatial representation ,050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology ,Maze Learning ,Sensory cue ,Brain Chemistry ,Communication ,business.industry ,MESH: Maze Learning ,Reproducibility of Results ,MESH: Male ,Rats ,MESH: Cholinergic Fibers ,13. Climate action ,Spatial behavior ,Space Perception ,business ,MESH: Cues ,Psychomotor Performance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
International audience; The present work defines a simple behavioral paradigm to evaluate spatial representation in rats. In two experimental conditions differing in the richness of distal visual cues, rats learned to locate a food goal in a cross maze from various starting points. We conducted different challenges consisting of (i) reaching the same goal from a modified arrangement of the maze arms (geometric challenge), (ii) reaching the goal within a 90 degrees rotated maze, herein checking the use of a place strategy, and (iii) investigating the effect of central cholinergic blockade over the retention of the task. Results showed that rats needed 12-30 trials to learn a place response, depending upon the richness of the visual environment. The maze rotation did not produce any impairment whereas the geometric challenge affected the performance specifically under the visually richer environment. Scopolamine injection (i.p.) produced a significant impairment in place recognition. Our present work shows that this maze procedure constitutes a useful paradigm to assess learning and processing of a place representation by rats. Similarly to what has been shown in other popular maze paradigms, our results show that rats mostly rely on distal extra-maze cues to solve the task, but also compute intra-maze information.
- Published
- 2003
- Full Text
- View/download PDF