Navigating to new frontiers in behavioral neuroscience: traditional neuropsychological tests predict human performance on a rodent-inspired radial-arm maze

Sarah E Mennenga,Elizabeth B Engler-Chiurazzi,B Blair Braden,Lauren T Hewitt,Keley R Schaefer,Julia E Gerson,Candy W S Tsang,Jazmin I Acosta,Michael K Mcbeath,Stephanie V Koebele,Gene A Brewer,Melissa L Kingston,Itamar S Grunfeld,Leona S Aiken,Courtney N Lavery,Bryan W Camp,Barbara Ball ,K Jakob Patten,Leslie C Baxter,Heather A Bimonte‐Nelson

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00294

Abstract

We constructed an 11-arm, walk-through, human radial-arm maze (HRAM) as a translational instrument to compare existing methodology in the areas of rodent and human learning and memory research. The HRAM, utilized here, serves as an intermediary test between the classic rat radial-arm maze (RAM) and standard human neuropsychological and cognitive tests. We show that the HRAM is a useful instrument to examine working memory ability, explore the relationships between rodent and human memory and cognition models, and evaluate factors that contribute to human navigational ability. One-hundred-and-fifty-seven participants were tested on the HRAM, and scores were compared to performance on a standard cognitive battery focused on episodic memory, working memory capacity, and visuospatial ability. We found that errors on the HRAM increased as working memory demand became elevated, similar to the pattern typically seen in rodents, and that for this task, performance appears similar to Miller's classic description of a processing-inclusive human working memory capacity of 7 ± 2 items. Regression analysis revealed that measures of working memory capacity and visuospatial ability accounted for a large proportion of variance in HRAM scores, while measures of episodic memory and general intelligence did not serve as significant predictors of HRAM performance. We present the HRAM as a novel instrument for measuring navigational behavior in humans, as is traditionally done in basic science studies evaluating rodent learning and memory, thus providing a useful tool to help connect and translate between human and rodent models of cognitive functioning.

Highlights

Spatial learning and memory, the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information about route navigation and object locations (Barnes et al, 1997), has been a major focus in the field of neuroscience since Tolman famously asserted that rodents utilize cognitive maps of their environments to navigate mazes (Tolman, 1948)
We show that the human radial-arm maze (HRAM) is a useful instrument to examine working memory ability, explore the relationships between rodent and human memory and cognition models, and evaluate factors that contribute to human navigational ability
We found that errors on the HRAM increased as working memory demand became elevated, similar to the pattern typically seen in rodents, and that for this task, performance appears similar to Miller’s classic description of a processing-inclusive human working memory capacity of 7 ± 2 items

Summary

Introduction

The ability to encode, store, and retrieve information about route navigation and object locations (Barnes et al, 1997), has been a major focus in the field of neuroscience since Tolman famously asserted that rodents utilize cognitive maps of their environments to navigate mazes (Tolman, 1948). Rewards are typically located at the end of each arm, or a subset of the arms, depending on the specific task protocol, and the maze is surrounded by plentiful extra-maze environmental cues to aid in spatial navigation. In the RAM, working memory demand is elevated with each trial; once a reward is located at the end of an arm, the animal must remember to avoid that arm on future trials for optimal task performance. This complexity makes the RAM a valuable instrument for evaluating the ability to handle

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