van der Staay F J, van Nies J, Raaijmakers W
Department of Neuropsychology and Psychobiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Behav Neural Biol. 1990 May;53(3):356-70. doi: 10.1016/0163-1047(90)90226-v.
The effects of aging on spatial memory performance of rats was studied in a holeboard task in which 4 of 16 holes were baited with food. Brown-Norway rats of five ages (4, 13, 19, 25, and 30 months) received a total of 80 acquisition trials. A clear age-related decline of spatial working and reference memory performance was found. The decline was most profound between 19 and 25 months of age. The speed of visiting holes and the development of a preferred pattern of hole-visits did not influence spatial discrimination performance. Correlational analysis supported the view that the working and reference memory measures represent distinct aspects of spatial memory.
