Sex differences in the Morris water maze in young ratstemporal dimensions

  1. Arias Pérez, Jorge Luis 1
  2. Miranda, Rubén 1
  3. Cimadevilla Redondo, José Manuel 1
  4. Conejo Jiménez, Nélida María 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Oviedo
    info

    Universidad de Oviedo

    Oviedo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/006gksa02

Revista:
Psicothema

ISSN: 0214-9915

Ano de publicación: 2004

Volume: 16

Número: 4

Páxinas: 611-614

Tipo: Artigo

Outras publicacións en: Psicothema

Resumo

There are many factors affecting our memory. The lapse of time between the acquisition and retrieval of information seems to be crucial because the intervening consolidation processes make a lasting engram. In this study, spatial memory was tested in 30day-old male and female Wistar rats by increasing delays between the acquisition phase and the probe test in the Morris water maze. Three groups of female rats were assessed with 1min, 6h and 12h delays as well as a male group tested with a result of a 12h delay. Results of the probe test revealed an adequate performance in males but a tendency in females to search for the missing platform in an incorrect place when long delays had occurred after acquisition (between 6 to 12h delays). These results suggest that females form a weaker representation of the environment than males, and such representation may be altered over time

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Astur, R.S., Ortiz, M.L. and Sutherland, R.J. (1998). A characterization of performance by men and women in a virtual Morris water task: a large and reliable sex difference. Behavioural Brain Research, 93, 185-190.
  • Barrientos, R.M., O’Reilly, R.C. and Rudy, J.W. (2002). Memory for context is impaired by injecting anisomycin into dorsal hippocampus following context exploration. Behavioural Brain Research, 134, 299- 306.
  • Berry, B., McMahan, R. and Gallagher, M. (1997). Spatial learning and memory at defined points of the estrous cycle: effects on performance of a hippocampal-dependent task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 267-274.
  • Bohbot, V., Otáhal, P., Liu, Z., Nadel, L. and Bures, J. (1996). Electroconvulsive shock and lidocaine reveal rapid consolidation of spatial working memory in the water maze. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 93, 4.016-4.019.
  • Bucci, D.J., Chiba, A.A. and Gallagher, M. (1995). Spatial learning in male and female Long-Evans rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 109, 180-183.
  • Cimadevilla, J.M., Fenton, A.A. and Bures, J. (2001). Transient sex differences in the between-session but not in the within-session memory underlying an active place avoidance task in weanling rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 115(3), 695-703.
  • Cimadevilla, J.M., González-Pardo, H., López, L., Díaz, F., Cueto, E.G., García-Moreno, L.M. and Arias, J.L. (1999). Sex-related differences in spatial learning during the early postnatal development of the rat. Behavioural Processes, 46, 159-171.
  • Conejo, N., González-Pardo, H., Cimadevilla, J.M., Vallejo-Seco, G. and Arias, J.L. (2003). Maduración de los astrositos del hipocampo de la rata: posibles implicaciones conductuales. Psicothema, 15, 216-220.
  • Galea, L.A.M., Kavaliers, M., Ossenkopp, K.P., Innes, D. and Hargreaves, E.L. (1994). Sexually dimorphic spatial learning varies seasonally in two populations of deer mice. Brain Research, 636, 18-26.
  • Haaren, F. and Hest, A. (1990). Behavioral differences between male and female rats: effects of gonadal hormones on learning and memory. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 14, 23-33.
  • Isgor, C. and Sengelaub, D.R. (1998). Prenatal gonadal steroids affect adult spatial behavior, CA1 and CA3 pyramidal cell morphology in rats. Hormones and Behavior, 34, 183-198.
  • Isgor, C. and Sengelaub, D.R. (2003). Effects of neonatal gonadal steroids on adult CA3 pyramidal neuron dendritic morphology and spatial memory in rats. Journal of Neurobiology, 55, 179-190.
  • Madeira, D.M. and Lieberman, A.R. (1995). Sexual dimorphism in the mammalian limbic system. Progress in Neurobiology, 45, 275-333.
  • Madeira, D.M., Sousa, N. and Paula-Barbosa, M.M. (1991). Sexual dimorphism in the mossy fiber synapses of the rat hippocampus. Experimental Brain Research, 87, 537-545.
  • Maren, S., De Oca, B. and Fanselow, M.S. (1994). Sex differences in hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats: positive correlation between LTP and contextual learning. Brain Research, 661, 25-34.
  • Naghdi, N., Oryan, S. and Etemadi, R. (2003). The study of spatial memory in adult male rats with injection of testosterone enanthate and flutamide into the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala in Morris water maze. Brain Research, 972, 1-8.
  • Roof, R.L. and Stein, D.G. (1999). Gender differences in Morris water maze performance depend on task parameters. Physiology and Behaviour, 68, 81-86.
  • Rudy, J.W. and Morledge, P. (1994). Ontogeny of contextual fear conditioning in rats: implications for consolidation, infantile amnesia, and hippocampal system function. Behavioral Neuroscience, 108, 227- 234.
  • Sandstrom, N.J., Kaufman, J. and Huettel, S.A. (1998). Males and females use different distal cues in a virtual environment navigation task. Cognitive Brain Research, 6, 351-360.
  • Stupien, G., Florian, C. and Roullet, P. (2003). Involvement of the hippocampal CA3 region in acquisition and in memory consolidation of spatial but not in object information in mice. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 80, 32-41.
  • Vicens, P., Redolat, R. and Carrasco, M.C. (2003). Aprendizaje especial y laberinto de agua: metodología y aplicaciones. Psicothema, 15, 539- 544.
  • Wallenstein, G.V., Vago, D.R. and Walberer, A.M. (2002). Time-dependent involvement of PKA/PKC in contextual memory consolidation. Behavioural Brain Research, 133, 159-164.
  • Warren, S.G. and Juraska, J.M. (1997). Spatial and nonspatial learning across the rat estrous cycle. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 259- 266.
  • Williams, C.L., Barnett, A.M. and Meck, W.H. (1990). Organizational effects of early gonadal secretions on sexual differentiation in spatial memory. Behavioral Neurosciences, 104, 84-97.