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Performance of young and aged C57BL/6J mice on cognitive task depends on the task (629.2)
Author(s) -
Du Kristy,
Perez Samuel,
Rhodes Justin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.629.2
Subject(s) - cognition , task (project management) , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , morris water navigation task , cognitive decline , psychology , doublecortin , elementary cognitive task , audiology , psychological intervention , medicine , neuroscience , developmental psychology , hippocampus , psychiatry , dementia , dentate gyrus , management , disease , economics
Aging has been associated with weakening of cognitive function, and nutritional supplementation has been suggested to enhance cognitive function. Prior research has demonstrated limited effects of dietary supplementation on rodent performance on cognitive tasks. The objective of this study is to identify behavior tasks that provide the greatest degree of sensitivity in aging‐associated cognitive decline for use in future studies. Young (2 months old) and aged (18 months old) female and male C57BL/6J mice were evaluated for performance on the Morris water maze, elevated plus maze, novel object recognition, passive avoidance, and active avoidance. Animals were euthanized at the end of the study to quantify proliferation of new neurons using doublecortin immunohistochemistry. The largest statistical differences in performance between age groups were seen in novel object recognition and active avoidance. This research model will lay the foundation for understanding the underlying mechanisms by which nutrition interventions may be implemented to slow the cognitive decline associated with aging.