TY - JOUR
T1 - Place navigation in the morris water maze under minimum and redundant extra-maze cue conditions
AU - Fenton, Andre A.
AU - Arolfo, Maria Pia
AU - Bures, Jan
N1 - Funding Information:
Target-directed place navigation in the water maze depends on extra-maze visual cues. The water maze has been a popular model of cognitive behavior since its introduction (Morris, 1981; reviewed in Brandeis, Brandys, & Yehuda, 1989). In the standard task the rat has a diverse visual background from which to compute the relations between the extra-maze landmarks, goal location, and itself. Un- 1 We thank A. Zahalka for designing the visual landmarks, L. Jerabkova for help with the figures, and Dr. L. Nadel for memorable discussions. M.P.A. was supported by a UNESCO fellowship and the research by Academy of Sciences Grant 71141 and by JSMF Grant 92-57. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Jan Bures, Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14220 Prague 4, Czech Republic. Fax: 42 2 4719517. E-mail: [email protected].
PY - 1994/11
Y1 - 1994/11
N2 - Complex relational processes underlying place navigation learning were analyzed by minimizing the relational elements available to rats. The animals navigated in a standard water maze in darkness using controlled remote visual cues (back-lit shapes in opaque buckets aimed at the pool to keep the background dark) while being tracked by an infrared camera and computer. Learning was similar with 2 (AB) or 4 (ABCD) cues and as good as in a fully lit room with many cues (asymptotic escape time t=5-7 s). The ABCD-trained rats were not impaired by removal of any 2 cues (t=7). For AB-trained rats, adding 2 new cues (ABEF) or replacing AB with EF (EF) caused small (t=11) or big disruption (t=20), respectively. By block 2, both groups (ABEF, EF) returned to asymptotic performance. But testing the ABEF rats on block 2 with only EF indicated that EF was learned (t=12) but not as well as when only EF was present (t=5). Thus transfer from a redundant to a minimal cue condition is immediate and easier than vice versa. Theoretical implications are discussed.
AB - Complex relational processes underlying place navigation learning were analyzed by minimizing the relational elements available to rats. The animals navigated in a standard water maze in darkness using controlled remote visual cues (back-lit shapes in opaque buckets aimed at the pool to keep the background dark) while being tracked by an infrared camera and computer. Learning was similar with 2 (AB) or 4 (ABCD) cues and as good as in a fully lit room with many cues (asymptotic escape time t=5-7 s). The ABCD-trained rats were not impaired by removal of any 2 cues (t=7). For AB-trained rats, adding 2 new cues (ABEF) or replacing AB with EF (EF) caused small (t=11) or big disruption (t=20), respectively. By block 2, both groups (ABEF, EF) returned to asymptotic performance. But testing the ABEF rats on block 2 with only EF indicated that EF was learned (t=12) but not as well as when only EF was present (t=5). Thus transfer from a redundant to a minimal cue condition is immediate and easier than vice versa. Theoretical implications are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0028172464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0028172464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0163-1047(05)80016-0
DO - 10.1016/S0163-1047(05)80016-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 7857240
AN - SCOPUS:0028172464
SN - 0163-1047
VL - 62
SP - 178
EP - 189
JO - Behavioral and Neural Biology
JF - Behavioral and Neural Biology
IS - 3
ER -