A novel paradigm, the allothetic place avoidance alternation task (APAAT), for testing spatial working memory in rat models

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event A novel paradigm, the allothetic place avoidance alternation task (APAAT), for testing spatial working memory in rat models Colleen Dockery1*, Iwona Adamska2, Pawel Popowski2 and Malgorzata Wesierska2 1 University of Tuebingen, Institute of Medical Psychology & Behavioral Neurobiology, Germany 2 Polish Academy of Sciences, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Poland This study was designed to investigate a new paradigm for working memory using a task known as the Place Avoidance Test (PAT). The PAT is a useful tool to test long-term memory, cognitive coordination, cognitive flexibility and motor performance in normal and lesioned rats [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The Allothetic Place Avoidance Alternation Task (APAAT), a variant of the PAT, is a delayed-response avoidance task to test working memory, skill learning and long term retention. In the APAAT, an unmarked 45 ° sector of the arena comprises a shock-zone which is stable relative to distal landmarks. Slow rotation of the arena forces the rat to move in order to avoid the shock sector. The aim of APAAT use is to further our understanding of how hippocampal-prefrontal circuitry regulates behavior and represents internally sustained information, thereby subserving working memory, planning, time integration and decision-making. A given session includes habituation (5 min), training (10-15 min), a delay interval (5 min) and a retention test trial (5 min). This task involves a wide range of dependent variables and successful learning is evidenced by a decreased number of entrances into the shock sector and a long maximal avoidance time during the training and transferred to the test trial. We found that learning occurred over the three consecutive sessions and was maintained in the follow-up session despite spatial alternation of the shock sector to a novel place on arena. The impact of this new paradigm is that the design provides highly sensitive measures which allow for disassociation between cognitive, learning, sensorimotor, olfactory or motivational states under pharmacological, lesion and stimulation interventions.