Effects of spatial and cognitive enrichment on activity pattern and learning performance in three strains of mice in the IntelliMaze.Show others and affiliations
2012 (English)In: Behavior Genetics, ISSN 0001-8244, E-ISSN 1573-3297, Vol. 42, no 3, p. 449-460Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The IntelliMaze allows automated behavioral analysis of group housed laboratory mice while individually assigned protocols can be applied concomitantly for different operant conditioning components. Here we evaluate the effect of additional component availability (enrichment) on behavioral and cognitive performance of mice in the IntelliCage, by focusing on aspects that had previously been found to consistently differ between three strains, in four European laboratories. Enrichment decreased the activity level in the IntelliCages and enhanced spatial learning performance. However, it did not alter strain differences, except for activity during the initial experimental phase. Our results from non-enriched IntelliCages proved consistent between laboratories, but overall laboratory-consistency for data collected using different IntelliCage set-ups, did not hold for activity levels during the initial adaptation phase. Our results suggest that the multiple conditioning in spatially and cognitively enriched environments are feasible without affecting external validity for a specific task, provided animals have adapted to such an IntelliMaze.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. Vol. 42, no 3, p. 449-460
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-61289DOI: 10.1007/s10519-011-9512-zISI: 000304118300010PubMedID: 22187051Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84866008332OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-61289DiVA, id: diva2:1080744
2017-03-102017-03-102021-05-06Bibliographically approved