Tommie Hill
Learning and Memory
Psy 425
Wheres The Food??
Introduction
There is no sure fire way to measure learning and memory so it is hard to diagnose if there is a
problem. When subjects are given tests and such they are being tested on their performance not on
what they have learned and their memory. However David Olton and Werner Honig were the first to
experiment on the working memory of rodents back in the 1970s. As the years have gone by scientists
have worked to improve the technique left by those two (Dudchenko). Studies have shown that a mouse
with memory impaired has some damage to the hippocampus (Gallagher). The hippocampus is the most
important part of memory processing, so for this study we will be seeing if the chemicals mess up the
animals hippocampus.
Subjects
In this experiment the subjects will be mice. Mice were chosen because it is unethical to test
such things on humans and with mice we are able to test more subjects for a lot cheaper. Also we can
test and see if the memory and learning problems affect adolescents more than adults or vice versa. All
of which can be done in a safe and control environment, also can be done faster in mice than humans.
There should be about 24 mice so there can be 12 mice in each group, if there are two different types of
equipment used double the number of subjects. That was one group is just one maze while the other is
the other maze. The subject for this experiment will be separated two different groups, one group that
gets injected with the companys drug and another that just get saline. Both groups will go through the
same methods and only differ based off of drug. It is considered a parallel study since the same things
are being done to each other.
This study will be between studies because we are able to go back to baseline after testing each
time. The baseline is just simply going back to when the animal did not know where the food was, so by
changing the food position you are going back to baseline. Then results are compared to the baseline
that the individual animal has, the baseline may differ from animal to animal but it is important to keep
them as close as possible.
Equipment
Radial Arm Maze
The Radial Arm-Maze is a piece of equipment that consists of eight equally spaced arms
radiating from a small circular central platform. The design help ensure that after checking for food at
each arm the rat is forced to return to the center before making another decision. This helps control and
limits the number of routes the mice can take, making it a lot easier to follow. This equipment has been
used to test memory and learning for years now. Another piece of equipment is called the Barnes Maze,
which is similar to the Radial Arm-Maze but without the dietary restrictions and less stress on the
animal. With this maze mice are motivated to escape the bright room and go to the escape room. The
escape room is on the open platform in a random placement chosen by the researcher. There can also
be false boxes that can help hide other visual cues. This maze is a lot easier to use when it comes to
drugs such as cocaine and Ritalin which both decrease the appetite of the subject.
To go about testing the learning and memory of the mice with the Radial Arm-Maze, the mice
are injected with the chemical that is being tested. Some drugs take a while to kick in so understanding
how the drug works is very important, also see if the drug decreases the appetite if so use the Barnes
Maze. When the drug is in full affect place the mice in the center of the Radial Arm-Maze and allows it
to wander freely until finds the food. While the mice is in there wandering around time and see how
long it takes for them to get to the food, also a fun thing to look at is the pattern they take while looking
for it. To make the food more rewarding depriving them of food does well; also remember that mice like
to eat the same food. So switching up what they eat in their cage and whats in the maze can cause
some problems.
After day one of testing the mice place the food in the same spot and see just how long its them
to find the food. When the mice start to understand that the food is going to be in that spot move it
again and again repeat this process for about 2 weeks. This way you can see how fast they go to the arm
the food was in the last and the time before that. If the mice goes straight to the arm with the food in it
from last time it shows that their memory is working, and they understand that, that area means food
so go there. When its placed into a different arm the mice should go to the arm with the food present
last time. Once they see its not there they will start searching and looking for the food again. This
process should continue to there is enough data to support that the subjects learning and memory is
damaged or not.
Experiments can also be run using the Barnes Maze and instead of food being the rewarding
factor comfort will be. Mice tend to not like bright places so they will be encouraged to leave the bright
area and find shelter in another place. The equipment has moveable escape boxes that can be placed
anywhere the research wants to. Once the box is placed anywhere randomly, then the mice will be
placed on the bright area on the platform. The mice will then be time with a stop watch to see how long
it takes them to correct escape box. When they have successful found the box bring them back to
baseline and change the box position and do it all over again.
Results
Effect on the Amount of Time Beside
Off of Food Location
1000
Axis Title
800
600
Time(sec)
400
Time (sec)
200
0
1
10 11 12
The blue line shows the control mice that didnt get injected with a drug. The red line is the mice on the
companys drug.
Discussion
After doing this study the results showed that there is some memory problems cause by the gases
released from the company. The gases have started to affect the animals hippocampus causing them to
lose the ability to hold information. The graph shows that it normally takes about a few days to find the
food then starts from baseline and does it again. While the companies drug caused them to lose thier
baseline, showing that nothing was really learned and remembered anything.
References
Dudchenko, Paul. overview of the tasks used to test working memory. Stirling: 2004.
Gallagher, Michela. "Memory and Aging." Animal models of memory impairment. Chapel Hill:
1997.
