Rodent maze studies: from following simple rules to complex map learning

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Abstract

More than 100 years since the first maze designed for rodent research, researchers now have the choice of a variety of mazes that come in many different shapes and sizes. Still old designs get modified and new designs are introduced to fit new research questions. Yet, which maze is the most optimal to use or which training paradigm should be applied, remains up for debate. In this review, we not only provide a historical overview of maze designs and usages in rodent learning and memory research, but also discuss the possible navigational strategies the animals can use to solve each maze. Furthermore, we summarize the different phases of learning that take place when a maze is used as the experimental task. At last, we delve into how training and maze design can affect what the rodents are actually learning in a spatial task.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00429-024-02771-x.

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Most cited references 173

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Developments of a water-maze procedure for studying spatial learning in the rat

Richard Morris (1984)

Developments of an open-field water-maze procedure in which rats learn to escape from opaque water onto a hidden platform are described. These include a procedure (A) for automatically tracking the spatial location of a hooded rat without the use of attached light-emitting diodes; (B) for studying different aspects of spatial memory (e.g. working memory); and (C) for studying non-spatial discrimination learning. The speed with which rats learn these tasks suggests that they may lend themselves to a variety of behavioural investigations, including pharmacological work and studies of cerebral function.

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The role of medial prefrontal cortex in memory and decision making.

David R. Euston, Aaron J. Gruber, Bruce L. McNaughton … (2013)

Some have claimed that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) mediates decision making. Others suggest mPFC is selectively involved in the retrieval of remote long-term memory. Yet others suggests mPFC supports memory and consolidation on time scales ranging from seconds to days. How can all these roles be reconciled? We propose that the function of the mPFC is to learn associations between context, locations, events, and corresponding adaptive responses, particularly emotional responses. Thus, the ubiquitous involvement of mPFC in both memory and decision making may be due to the fact that almost all such tasks entail the ability to recall the best action or emotional response to specific events in a particular place and time. An interaction between multiple memory systems may explain the changing importance of mPFC to different types of memories over time. In particular, mPFC likely relies on the hippocampus to support rapid learning and memory consolidation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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The human hippocampus and spatial and episodic memory.

Neil M. Burgess, Eleanor A. Maguire, John O'Keefe (2002)

Finding one's way around an environment and remembering the events that occur within it are crucial cognitive abilities that have been linked to the hippocampus and medial temporal lobes. Our review of neuropsychological, behavioral, and neuroimaging studies of human hippocampal involvement in spatial memory concentrates on three important concepts in this field: spatial frameworks, dimensionality, and orientation and self-motion. We also compare variation in hippocampal structure and function across and within species. We discuss how its spatial role relates to its accepted role in episodic memory. Five related studies use virtual reality to examine these two types of memory in ecologically valid situations. While processing of spatial scenes involves the parahippocampus, the right hippocampus appears particularly involved in memory for locations within an environment, with the left hippocampus more involved in context-dependent episodic or autobiographical memory.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Lisa Genzel:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9537-7959

lisa.genzel@donders.ru.nl

Jacqueline van der Meij:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1083-8208

jacqueline.vandermeij@donders.ru.nl

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Brain Struct Funct

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Brain Struct Funct

Title: Brain Structure & Function

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )

ISSN (Print): 1863-2653

ISSN (Electronic): 1863-2661

Publication date (Electronic): 15 March 2024

Publication date PMC-release: 15 March 2024

Publication date (Print): 2024

Volume: 229

Issue: 4

Pages: 823-841

Affiliations

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, ( https://ror.org/016xsfp80) Postbus 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Author information

Kjell Wijnen http://orcid.org/0009-0007-6188-0178

Lisa Genzel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9537-7959

Jacqueline van der Meij http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1083-8208

Article

Publisher ID: 2771

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-024-02771-x

PMC ID: 11004052

PubMed ID: 38488865

SO-VID: b06cc56e-3be1-4e8d-8869-f7b904bd72cf

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 14 July 2023

Date accepted : 30 January 2024

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003246, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek;

Award ID: KLEIN

Award ID: VIDI

Award Recipient : Lisa Genzel Jacqueline van der Meij

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurology

Keywords: rodents,maze,navigation,learning,memory

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurology

Keywords: rodents, maze, navigation, learning, memory

Rodent maze studies: from following simple rules to complex map learning

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Abstract

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Karger: Neurology and Neuroscience

Most cited references 173

Developments of a water-maze procedure for studying spatial learning in the rat

The role of medial prefrontal cortex in memory and decision making.

The human hippocampus and spatial and episodic memory.

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