![]() ![]() For example, visiting a place that contains a food reward leads to a win-shift behaviour, while visiting a place that does not contain food leads to a loose-shift behaviour. An alternative explanation for alternation is that mice have an innate tendency to shift. Since this behaviour does not require pre-training and relies merely on the natural attraction of rodents for novelty, alternation has been defined as spontaneous. In the third trial, when both arms have been visited, the arm with the highest degree of novelty (the arm explored longer ago) is preferred. After a first choice in the sample trial, in the second trial the arm which has not been previously explored is preferred. Basically, spontaneous alternation T-maze is based on the natural tendency of rodents to prefer exploring a novel arm over a familiar one, which induces them to alternate the choice of the goal arm 6, 10, 11, 12, 13. This phenomenon was better defined and investigated in the 1930s by Wayne Dennis (1905–1976) 7, 8, 9, who also coined the expression “spontaneous alternation” 10. In the 1920s, Edward Tolman (1886–1959) applied the T-maze to the study of rodent cognition and was the first to report the phenomenon of spontaneous alternation 6. ![]() A first T-maze apparatus was designed at the beginning of the 1910s by Robert Yerkes (1876–1956) at Harvard University for the study of invertebrate cognition, in particular learning processes in the earthworm 5. The T-maze is a T-shaped apparatus allowing a choice between two opposite arms. One of the most well-established tests of spatial working memory is the spontaneous alternation T-maze. Since the pioneering studies of Willard Stanton Small (1870–1943) at the end of the 1890s 4 mazes have been widely employed in behavioural neuroscience to investigate experimentally memory processes through animal models, in particular rodents, such as mice and rats. In particular, spatial working memory designates temporary spatial information needed to carry out a specific behaviour. On the other hand, on the basis of its content, memory can likewise be divided into several subtypes, including visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, interoceptive and spatial. Its capacity is limited, as well as its duration, and its usefulness is strictly related to the execution of a specific task. The concept of working memory partially overlaps the one of STM and although many authors subsequently utilized the expressions as synonyms, working memory actually refers more specifically to a cognitive buffer that stores information and permits its manipulation to guide decision-making and behaviour 3. The expression “working memory” was first coined by George Armitage Miller (1920–2012), Eugene Galanter (1924–2016) and Karl Pribram (1919–2015) in their seminal book Plans and the Structure of Behavior in reference to a memory store for action plans 2. ![]() On the basis of the duration of its retention, we can distinguish between short-term memory (STM), which ranges from seconds to minutes, and long-term memory (LTM), which is characterized by a duration of days, years or even decades. Importantly, memory is not a unique faculty but can be subdivided into different subsystems. Both intra-maze and external cues can be used and optional feeders or doors can be added to the maze to separate the central arena from the arms and deliver the reward only when the task has been completed.ĭetailed information on UGO BASILE website.Memory can be broadly defined as the persistence of previously acquired information 1. In short, the many variants of the radial arm maze allow the experimenter to assess spatial memory in mice and rats by measuring the avoidance of re-entry in already visited and non-baited arms. For example, the visit of each arm only once within a trial, indicates a good working memory, while visits to non-baited arms indicate errors in reference memory. It is an appetitive test and in fact the motivation for the animal (mice or rats) is to find a food reward in one or more arms. The animal can rely on egocentric or allocentric (cues outside of the maze) strategies and working versus reference memory can be assessed by adopting intra- or intertrial protocols. The radial arm maze is a test which can be used for several sophisticated protocols to study spatial, working, and reference learning and memory. Reliable and durable mazes, easy to clean and store.Selected for best rodent comfort, non-slippery.Available in grey (standard), blue, white, black, custom color.Guarantees optimal camera view and no glare.Gives optimal results with any Video-Tracking software.Reasonably rough “warm” surface texture.
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