Department of Physiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, PR China; Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, PR China.
Behav Brain Res. 2013 Nov 15;257:140-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.09.033. Epub 2013 Sep 26.
Research concerning impairment of associative learning during aging remains limited. The senescence-accelerated mice (SAM) prone/8 (P8) has been proposed as a useful model for the study of aging, and SAM resistant/1(SAMR1) is its control as a normal aging strain. Classical eyeblink conditioning has long been served as a model of associative learning. In order to explore the effects of aging on associative learning in SAM, the present study successively tested three paradigms of eyeblink conditioning in SAMP8 and SAMR1: classical single cue trace eyeblink conditioning (TEC), discriminative trace eyeblink conditioning and reversal learning of TEC. Behavioral performance indicated that SAMP8 could acquire limited single-cue trace eyeblink conditioning task and two-tone discrimination trace eyeblink conditioning with a relative lower acquisition rate compared to SAMR1. Both SAMP8 and SAMR1 failed to acquire reversal learning of discriminative TEC, and SAMP8' startle reflex to tone CS was lower than SAMR1. These results indicated that the impairments of aging on associative learning were incomplete in SAMP8.
有关衰老过程中联想学习损伤的研究仍然有限。快速老化模型鼠（SAM）易感/8 （P8）已被提议作为研究衰老的有用模型，而 SAM 抵抗/1（SAMR1）则是其正常衰老的对照品系。经典的眨眼条件反射长期以来一直被用作联想学习的模型。为了探索衰老对 SAM 中联想学习的影响，本研究在 SAMP8 和 SAMR1 中连续测试了三种眨眼条件反射范式：经典单线索痕迹眨眼条件反射（TEC）、辨别性痕迹眨眼条件反射和 TEC 的反转学习。行为表现表明，与 SAMR1 相比，SAMP8 只能获得有限的单线索痕迹眨眼条件反射任务和双音辨别性痕迹眨眼条件反射，获得率相对较低。SAMP8 和 SAMR1 均未能获得辨别性 TEC 的反转学习，SAMP8 的声音 CS 惊跳反射低于 SAMR1。这些结果表明，SAMP8 中衰老对联想学习的损伤并不完全。
