Kikusui T, Tonohiro T, Kaneko T
Neuroscience Research Laboratories, Sankyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.
Neurobiol Aging. 1999 Nov-Dec;20(6):629-36. doi: 10.1016/s0197-4580(99)00096-2.
It is well known that learning and memory ability declines with aging. Age-related long-term changes in learning and memory ability in rats were investigated with the place navigation task and the allocentric place discrimination task (APDT) in a water maze using the same animals for each task. In a working memory place navigation task, aged animals could learn the location of the platform as well as when they were young, although strategy shifts were observed. In contrast, accuracy in the APDT significantly declined from 90% to 65% with aging. This impairment was ameliorated by an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor physostigmine at 22-23 months old. No amelioration was, however, detected in the same animals tested when they further aged to 26-27 months old. These results suggest that the APDT performance is sensitive to age-related memory deficits and that this may be due to the cholinergic dysfunction.
众所周知，学习和记忆能力会随着年龄增长而下降。使用相同的大鼠，通过水迷宫中的位置导航任务和非中心位置辨别任务（APDT），研究了与年龄相关的大鼠学习和记忆能力的长期变化。在工作记忆位置导航任务中，老年动物能够像幼年时一样学习平台的位置，尽管观察到了策略转变。相比之下，随着年龄增长，APDT的准确性从90%显著下降到65%。在22 - 23月龄时，乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制剂毒扁豆碱改善了这种损伤。然而，当这些相同的动物进一步衰老到26 - 27月龄时，未检测到改善情况。这些结果表明，APDT表现对与年龄相关的记忆缺陷敏感，这可能是由于胆碱能功能障碍所致。
