Improvements of Morris Water Maze Evaluation Method and Re-evaluation of the Rapid Aaging Dementia SAMP8 Cognitive Function in Mice

Objective: To improve evaluation of the Morris water maze,which make it more suitable for the evaluation of the cognitive function of mice.And re-evaluate the cognitive function of the rapid aging dementia mice the SAMP8(senescence accelerated mouse prone 8).Methods: The SAMP8 group and its homologous normal control mice SAMR1(senescence accelerated mouse resistant 1) were taken as the research object,and the evaluation of the Morris water maze conditions was optimized.The effect of the mice spatial reference memory capacity by into water point position,the number of daily swim,test order,color and ect were researched.Results: The SAMP8 mice escape latency in each part of the test significantly was longer than SAMR1 mice.SAMP8 mice swam slower than SAMR1 mice.SAMP8 mice their own swimming speed remained stable during the test.Groups latency show no difference on the first day of change the test method.The SAMP8 mice search strategy were mostly random type and edge-type while the SAMR1 mice were linear type and tend type.Conclusion: Explore trials interspersed in hidden and reverse platform test is more effective in test mice short-term learning memory abilities.The scores of the first day after changing test method can not be the standard of evaluate the learning and memory abilities of mice.4-5 times a day,the number of training does not affect the swimming speed of the mice.SAMP8 mice is a good animal model to study age-related learning and memory deficits.