Psychology Department and Neuroscience Institute, Dalhousie University, PO Box 1500, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
Behav Brain Res. 2012 May 16;231(1):75-85. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.02.044. Epub 2012 Mar 3.
Mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often tested for learning and memory deficits using visuo-spatial tasks such as the Morris water maze. Performance on these tasks is dependent on vision and the APPswe/PS1dE9 mouse model has amyloid beta plaques in their retinas which might influence their performance in these tasks. In a visual learning task, old (20-26 months) transgenic mice and their wildtype littermates of both sexes had poorer visual ability than young (5-8 months) mice and old transgenic mice had poorer visual acuity than old wildtype mice. Old transgenic mice also had deficits in visuo-spatial learning and memory on the Morris water maze. The transgenic mice had no deficits in the conditioned odour preference or conditioned taste aversion memory tests at any age. These results indicate that the old APPswe/PS1dE9 mice and their wildtype littermates both have a deficit in their visual ability and that visually dependent measures alone should not be used to assess learning and memory in this strain.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）的小鼠模型通常通过视空间任务（如 Morris 水迷宫）来测试学习和记忆缺陷。这些任务的表现依赖于视觉，而 APPswe/PS1dE9 小鼠模型的视网膜中有淀粉样β斑块，这可能会影响它们在这些任务中的表现。在一项视觉学习任务中，年老（20-26 个月）的转基因小鼠及其同窝野生型雌雄小鼠的视觉能力比年幼（5-8 个月）的小鼠差，年老的转基因小鼠的视力比年老的野生型小鼠差。年老的转基因小鼠在 Morris 水迷宫上也存在视空间学习和记忆缺陷。在任何年龄，转基因小鼠在条件性气味偏好或条件性味觉厌恶记忆测试中均未出现缺陷。这些结果表明，年老的 APPswe/PS1dE9 小鼠及其同窝野生型小鼠的视觉能力都存在缺陷，并且仅使用依赖视觉的测量方法不应评估该品系的学习和记忆能力。
