Wild caught vs inbred mouse strains: Differences in wheel-turn avoidance learning

Abstract

Three Bar Harbor inbred mouse strains; C57BL/6J, C3H/HeJ, and DBA/2J, and two wild caught but laboratory bred Peromyscus strains; P. leucopus and P. maniculatus bairdi, were compared over 8 days of acquisition training on a wheel-turn avoidance task. In the acquisition of the conditioned avoidance response, the Bar Harbor inbreds did not differ but were, as a group, significantly better than the wild caught strains. Differences in activity rate were also apparent, but do not account for the differences in avoidance performance.