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Old mice require new experimental tricks to study aging process

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 518–519 (2013)Cite this article

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The water maze task is one of the most widely used laboratory methods to assess learning and memory in aging mice. In this decades-old test, scientists place mice in a pool of water and record how long it takes them to find a small platform hidden just below the water surface. The longer a mouse takes after a few training runs, the worse its cognitive score.

Or so the thinking goes. There's just one problem: the water maze task might not be measuring learning and memory in these lab models at all. “The mice aren't motivated to find that hidden platform,” says Paul Pistell, a behavioral neuroscientist at Towson University in Maryland. And even when they do find it, they often jump right off. “Being anthropomorphic, they're like, 'I don't care about sitting here and learning where the platform is. I just want to get out of here. I want to escape from my situation.'”

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  1. Elie Dolgin
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Dolgin, E. Old mice require new experimental tricks to study aging process. Nat Med 19, 518–519 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0513-518

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