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Related Experiment Videos

Place learning in the Morris water task: making the memory stick.

Kevin Bolding1, Jerry W Rudy

  • 1Center for Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.

Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.)
|May 18, 2006
PubMed
Summary
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Place memory retention in the Morris water task is excellent for short intervals but rapidly declines within 4 hours. Memory retention can be improved by strategically spacing training trials.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • The Morris water task is a widely used paradigm for studying spatial learning and memory in rodents.
  • Despite extensive use, systematic investigations into the retention of spatial memories acquired through this task are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically investigate the retention of spatial memories acquired using the Morris water task.
  • To identify factors influencing the duration and quality of spatial memory retention.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Morris water task with rodents as a model system.
  • Assessed spatial memory retention through selective search behavior on probe trials at varying retention intervals.
  • Manipulated inter-trial and inter-block intervals during training to examine their effects on retention.

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Main Results:

  • Spatial memory retention, indicated by selective search, was robust at short retention intervals (5-10 minutes).
  • Performance significantly deteriorated by approximately 4 hours, with search behavior becoming non-selective.
  • Introducing gaps between training blocks improved long-term retention, but this effect was dependent on the duration of the gap in a non-monotonic manner.
  • The initial training location did not impact long-term retention.

Conclusions:

  • Spatial memory acquired via the Morris water task exhibits rapid forgetting, with significant decline occurring within hours.
  • Inter-trial interval manipulation, specifically spacing training blocks, can enhance spatial memory retention.
  • A memory modulation framework may offer insights into the mechanisms underlying these observed retention patterns.