Oasis maze

The oasis maze is a spatial memory task used in psychology and neuroscience research and is the dry version of the Morris water navigation task. It is a land-based spatial memory task in which a thirsty rat uses distal spatial cues to search an open field for a specific location (Oasis) containing water. The maze consists of an enclosed space (usually the same shape and dimensions of the space used in the Morris water maze) in which a small amount of water is hidden. A thirsty rat is then placed in the maze and learns where the water is by trial and error. The maze tests memory by allowing the researcher to record the rat's performance on this task after it is learned and various time intervals or other events supposedly disruptive to memory have occurred. The oasis maze is a spatial memory task used in psychology and neuroscience research and is the dry version of the Morris water navigation task. It is a land-based spatial memory task in which a thirsty rat uses distal spatial cues to search an open field for a specific location (Oasis) containing water. The maze consists of an enclosed space (usually the same shape and dimensions of the space used in the Morris water maze) in which a small amount of water is hidden. A thirsty rat is then placed in the maze and learns where the water is by trial and error. The maze tests memory by allowing the researcher to record the rat's performance on this task after it is learned and various time intervals or other events supposedly disruptive to memory have occurred. The Oasis maze is a circular, acrylic board (1.8 m in diameter) that is painted flat white and raised 76 cm from the floor by a table with a lazy Susan attached, allowing the board to be freely rotated about its central axis. The surface of the board contains 426 evenly spaced wells (2.5 cm in diameter, 1.3 cm in depth) in which small amounts of water (0.3 ml) can be hidden. Water is used as a reward because, unlike food rewards, rats cannot locate the water using olfactory cues.