Sabolek Helen R, Bunce Jamie G, Giuliana Derek, Chrobak James J
Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Neurobiol Aging. 2004 Oct;25(9):1221-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2003.12.006.
A longitudinal design was used to examine spatial working memory performance in aging Long-Evans rats on a 12-arm, delayed-non-match-to-sample radial maze task. Compared to performance at 12-13 months of age, the same rats exhibited a significant performance deficit at 15-16 months of age across all retention intervals (1.5-10h). All rats exhibited some degree of decline, and no rat performed as well as they had 3 months earlier. This early onset deficit may relate to the degree of difficulty required to perform accurately in a task that maximizes both spatial information processing and flexible working memory representations. Following our observation, rats were implanted with a chronic cannula aimed at the medial septal nucleus. Acute intraseptal tacrine treatments (0.0-25 micrograms/0.5 microl) did not significantly affect any index of performance. Rats exhibited further memory decline over the course of testing (up to 20 months of age). Detection of early onset dysfunction could allow for experimental analysis of underlying mechanisms and therapeutic strategies early in the course of age-related changes.
采用纵向设计，在12臂延迟非匹配样本放射状迷宫任务中检测老年Long-Evans大鼠的空间工作记忆表现。与12至13月龄时的表现相比，相同的大鼠在15至16月龄时，在所有保持间隔（1.5至10小时）内均表现出显著的表现缺陷。所有大鼠均表现出一定程度的衰退，且没有一只大鼠的表现与3个月前一样好。这种早期出现的缺陷可能与在一项最大限度地提高空间信息处理和灵活工作记忆表征能力的任务中准确执行所需的难度程度有关。在我们观察之后，将慢性套管植入大鼠体内，目标是内侧隔核。急性隔内他克林治疗（0.0至25微克/0.5微升）并未显著影响任何表现指标。在测试过程中（直至20月龄），大鼠表现出进一步的记忆衰退。检测早期出现的功能障碍可以在与年龄相关变化的过程早期对潜在机制和治疗策略进行实验分析。
