Spatial memory and radial arm maze performance of rats

Olton, David S.; Collison, Christine; Werz, Mary Ann

doi:10.1016/0023-9690(77)90054-6

Cited by 361 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Therefore, for intact rats, even dramatic response stereotypy does not allow us to infer that the animals are relying on a response algorithm. Other evidence is required before such a conclusion may be drawn [12,27]. The subjects in this experiment apparently engaged in stereotyped responding in addition to selecting arms on the basis of another strategy, rather than relying on a response algorithm instead of some other strategy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…For these subjects, any inference that the manipulation has caused a strange in strategy must be made cautiously [9,14,21]. Several procedures [12,27] allow one to determine whether subjects perform effectively after the use of response algorithms has been eliminated. The taskcompletion pause measure will allow one to determine, without a change in procedure, whether subjects currently exhibiting response stereotypy are depending solely on response algorithms.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Spatial and temporal response patterns on the eight-arm radial maze

Dale

1986

Physiology & Behavior

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confidence: 92%

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confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal response patterns on the eight-arm radial maze

Dale

1986

Physiology & Behavior

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“…Revisits to arms that have been visited previously in the trial are considered errors because food is no longer available. Previous work has shown that rats make very few errors in an eight-arm maze (e.g., Olton & Samuelson, 1976) and perform above chance in a 17-arm maze (Olton, Collison, & Werz, 1977). The cues necessary for accurate performance are the extramaze cues associated with the arms rather than odors or response algorithms; that fact makes it clear that performance in this task depends on some form of short-term or working memory system (cf.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, rats seem more likely to avoid revisiting more recent choices than choices made earlier. This recency effect implies that retrospective coding is being used (but see Olton et al, 1977 for an alternative explanation of the recency effects found by Olton and Samuelson, 1976). If prospective memory were being used, then there should be no relation between the order in which arms are visited and the probability of revisiting them, because memory would not contain representations of the arms already visited, but instead would contain representations of anticipated future choices.…”

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confidence: 99%

Flexible memory processing by rats: Use of prospective and retrospective information in the radial maze.

Cook¹,

Brown²,

Riley³

1985

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

153

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Four experiments investigated the content of the memory used by rats in mediating retention intervals interpolated during performance in a 12-arm radial maze. The delay occurred following either the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, or 10th choice. A 15-min delay had the greatest disruptive effect when interpolated in the middle of the choice sequence and less of an effect when it occurred either earlier or later. This pattern of results was obtained when either a free- or forced-choice procedure was used prior to the delay and regardless of whether postdelay testing consisted of completion of the maze or two-alternative forced-choice tests. Assuming that the disruptive effect of a delay is a function of memory load, this implies that the rats used information about previously visited arms (retrospective memory) following an earlier interpolated delay but information about anticipated choices (prospective memory) following a delay interpolated late in the choice sequence. There appeared to be a recency effect only in the early and middle delay conditions. This provides converging evidence for the dual-code hypothesis. No evidence for prospective memory was obtained following a 60-min delay.

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“…Traditionally, the RAM is believed to tap distal spatial (allothetic) cues [13] but the drug may alter this strategy and thus improve performance. While possible, the pattern of errors made would suggest that enhanced motivation to obtain a reward, enhanced attention and/or enhanced spatial working memory were greater factors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methylphenidate improves performance on the radial arm maze in periadolescent rats

Dow-Edwards

Weedon

Hellmann

2008

Neurotoxicology and Teratology

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Methylphenidate (Ritalin; MPD) is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in childhood and adolescence and many clinical studies have documented its efficacy. Due to the limitations of conducting invasive research in humans, animal models can be beneficial for studying drug effects. However, few animal studies have demonstrated the effects of methylphenidate on cognitive processes. The objective of this study was to find a dose of methylphenidate that was effective in improving performance on a spatial working memory cognitive task when administered orally to periadolescent rats. Therefore, we dosed subjects with methylphenidate at 1 or 3 mg/kg/day via gastric intubation from postnatal day 22 to 59 and assessed the effects of the drug on performance on the radial arm maze each day. To enhance performance overall, a second experiment was conducted where the subjects were moderately food restricted (to 90% of the free-feeding weight). Results of Experiment 1 show that during the first week of testing only the 3mg/kg MPD-treated males showed improved performance (entries prior to repeated entry) when ad-lib fed and housed in pairs while the same dose significantly improved performance in both males and females under conditions of food-restriction and individual housing in Experiment 2. MPD also produced a pattern of increased errors and arms entered during the first week, especially in Experiment 2. MPD increased locomotor activity when tested at postnatal day 60 in both experiments. The data suggest that 3mg/ kg oral methylphenidate improves performance on a spatial cognitive task only early in treatment in the rat. While males show improvement under conditions of both high and low motivation, females only show MPD effects when highly motivated. Hypothetically, methylphenidate may improve radial arm maze performance through increased attention and improved spatial working memory and/or alterations in locomotion, reactivity to novelty or anxiety. Regardless, the study supports the utility of the rat as a suitable model to examine the effects of low dose oral MPD.

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Spatial memory and radial arm maze performance of rats

Cited by 361 publications

References 20 publications

Spatial and temporal response patterns on the eight-arm radial maze

Spatial and temporal response patterns on the eight-arm radial maze

Flexible memory processing by rats: Use of prospective and retrospective information in the radial maze.

Methylphenidate improves performance on the radial arm maze in periadolescent rats

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