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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Morris Water Maze Test for Learning and Memory Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Model Mice
Published on: July 20, 2011
Mineralocorticoid receptor stimulation effects on spatial memory in healthy young adults: A study using the virtual
Dominique Piber1, Katharina Schultebraucks1, Sven C Mueller2
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Hospital Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
Objectives:
Stress hormones such as cortisol are known to influence a wide range of cognitive functions, including hippocampal based spatial memory. In the brain, cortisol acts via two different receptors: the glucocorticoid (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). As the MR has a high density in the hippocampus, we examined the effects of pharmacological MR stimulation on spatial memory.
Methods:
Eighty healthy participants (40 women, 40 men, mean age=23.9years±SD=3.3) completed the virtual Morris Water Maze (vMWM) task to test spatial encoding and spatial memory retrieval after receiving 0.4mg fludrocortisone, a MR agonist, or placebo.
Results:
There was no effect of MR stimulation on spatial encoding during the vMWM task. However, participants who received fludrocortisone exhibited improved spatial memory retrieval performance. There was neither a main effect of sex nor a sex-by-treatment interaction.
Conclusion:
In young healthy participants, MR stimulation improved hippocampal based spatial memory retrieval in a virtual Morris Water Maze task. Our study not only confirms the importance of MR function in spatial memory, but suggests beneficial effects of acute MR stimulation on spatial memory retrieval in humans.
