Interaction between the nature of the information and the cognitive requirement of the task in problem solving in mice
Cognitive Brain Research. 2004-11-01; 21(3): 289-300
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.06.016
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1. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Nov;21(3):289-300.
Interaction between the nature of the information and the cognitive requirement
of the task in problem solving in mice.
Wolff M(1), Benhassine N, Costet P, Segu L, Buhot MC.
Author information:
(1)Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS UMR 5106, Université de Bordeaux
1, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France.
The Morris water maze and the radial-arm maze are two of the most frequently
employed behavioral tasks used to assess spatial memory in rodents. In this
study, we describe two new behavioral tasks in a radial-arm water maze enabling
to combine the advantages of the Morris water maze and the radial-arm maze. In
both tasks, spatial and nonspatial learning was assessed and the only task
parameter that varied was the nature of the information available which was
either spatial (various distal extra-maze cues) or nonspatial (visual intra-maze
patterns). In experiment 1, 129T2/Sv mice were able to learn three successive
pairwise discriminations [(1) A+/B-, (2) B+/C-, (3) C+/A-] with the same
efficiency in both modalities (i.e. spatial and nonspatial modalities).
Probe-trials at the end of each of these discriminations revealed particular
features of this transverse-patterning-like procedure. In experiment 2, another
group of 129T2/Sv mice was submitted to a delayed matching-to-sample working
memory task. Mice were able to learn the task and were then able to show
resistance to temporal interference as long as 60 min in the spatial modality but
they failed to acquire the task in the nonspatial modality. The fact that the
nonspatial information was exactly the same in both experiments highlights the
existence of an interaction between the cognitive requirements of the task and
the nature of the information.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.06.016
PMID: 15511645 [Indexed for MEDLINE]