Spatial navigation of staggerer and normal mice during juvenile and adult stages

Staggerer mutant mice were compared to normal mice of two different ages (2-6 mo) in two tasks requiring navigational skills in a circular maze visible platform condition and a T-maze. Staggerer mutants had higher latencies than normal mice in both tests. The performance of normal mice worsened with age for both tests. The aging factor interacted with the genotype factor only in the circular maze, where the mutant-nonmutant differential was wider among juvenile animals. In neither task was there evidence of a more pronounced impairment with aging in staggerer mutants. It remains to be determined in this mutant at more advanced stages of aging or in other models of chronic neural disease whether early neuropathology accelerates brain aging.