Effects of neocortical ectopias upon the acquisition and retention of a non-spatial reference memory task in BXSB mice

Abstract

BXSB mice have a 40–60% incidence of small, focal, neocortical dysplasias called ectopias. Ectopics and non-ectopics were compared on horizontal–vertical discrimination learning, a non-spatial cognitive task. No differences were found during acquisition. Ectopic mice, however, were superior when retested 8 weeks later. The results support prior findings that ectopic mice have better long-term spatial memory and extend this conclusion to the non-spatial domain.