Air flow cued spatial learning in mice

Spatial learning experiments in rodents typically employ visual cues that are associated with a goal place, even though it is now well established that they have poor visual acuity. We assessed here the possibility of spatial learning in mice based on an air flow cue in a dry version of the Morris water maze task. A miniature fan was placed at each of the four cardinal points of the circular maze, but only one blew air towards the centre of the maze. The three other fans were blowing towards their own box. The mice were able to learn the task only if the spatial relationship between the air flow cue and the position of the goal place was kept constant across trials. A change of this spatial relationship resulted in an increase in the time to find the goal place. We report here the first evidence of spatial learning relying on an air flow cue.