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Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation

The radial arm maze (RAM) is a common behavioral test to quantify spatial learning and memory in rodents. Prior attempts to refine the standard experimental setup have been insufficient. Previously, we demonstrated the feasibility of a fully automated, voluntary, and stress-free eight-arm RAM not re...

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Autores principales: Kohler, Joel, Mei, Jie, Banneke, Stefanie, Winter, York, Endres, Matthias, Emmrich, Julius Valentin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9562048/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36248032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1013624
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author Kohler, Joel
Mei, Jie
Banneke, Stefanie
Winter, York
Endres, Matthias
Emmrich, Julius Valentin
author_facet Kohler, Joel
Mei, Jie
Banneke, Stefanie
Winter, York
Endres, Matthias
Emmrich, Julius Valentin
author_sort Kohler, Joel
collection PubMed
description The radial arm maze (RAM) is a common behavioral test to quantify spatial learning and memory in rodents. Prior attempts to refine the standard experimental setup have been insufficient. Previously, we demonstrated the feasibility of a fully automated, voluntary, and stress-free eight-arm RAM not requiring food or water deprivation. Here, we compared this newly developed refined RAM to a classic manual experimental setup using 24 female 10–12 weeks old C57BL/6J mice. We used a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced model of systemic inflammation to examine long-term cognitive impairment for up to 13 weeks following LPS injection. Both mazes demonstrated robust spatial learning performance during the working memory paradigm. The refined RAM detected spatial learning and memory deficits among LPS-treated mice in the working memory paradigm, whereas the classic RAM detected spatial learning and memory deficits only in the combined working/reference memory paradigm. In addition, the refined RAM allowed for quantification of an animal’s overall exploratory behavior and day/night activity pattern. While our study highlights important aspects of refinement of the new setup, our comparison of methods suggests that both RAMs have their respective merits depending on experimental requirements.
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spelling pubmed-95620482022-10-15 Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation Kohler, Joel Mei, Jie Banneke, Stefanie Winter, York Endres, Matthias Emmrich, Julius Valentin Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience The radial arm maze (RAM) is a common behavioral test to quantify spatial learning and memory in rodents. Prior attempts to refine the standard experimental setup have been insufficient. Previously, we demonstrated the feasibility of a fully automated, voluntary, and stress-free eight-arm RAM not requiring food or water deprivation. Here, we compared this newly developed refined RAM to a classic manual experimental setup using 24 female 10–12 weeks old C57BL/6J mice. We used a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced model of systemic inflammation to examine long-term cognitive impairment for up to 13 weeks following LPS injection. Both mazes demonstrated robust spatial learning performance during the working memory paradigm. The refined RAM detected spatial learning and memory deficits among LPS-treated mice in the working memory paradigm, whereas the classic RAM detected spatial learning and memory deficits only in the combined working/reference memory paradigm. In addition, the refined RAM allowed for quantification of an animal’s overall exploratory behavior and day/night activity pattern. While our study highlights important aspects of refinement of the new setup, our comparison of methods suggests that both RAMs have their respective merits depending on experimental requirements. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9562048/ /pubmed/36248032 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1013624 Text en Copyright © 2022 Kohler, Mei, Banneke, Winter, Endres and Emmrich. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Kohler, Joel
Mei, Jie
Banneke, Stefanie
Winter, York
Endres, Matthias
Emmrich, Julius Valentin
Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title_full Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title_fullStr Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title_full_unstemmed Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title_short Assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: Classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
title_sort assessing spatial learning and memory in mice: classic radial maze versus a new animal-friendly automated radial maze allowing free access and not requiring food deprivation
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9562048/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36248032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1013624
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