Salimi Ahmad, Pourahmad Jalal
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, Ardabil University of Medical Science, Ardabil, Iran.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1797:545-554. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7883-0_32.
For a long time, mice have been less popular than rats for studying cognitive impairment, mainly because much less neuroanatomical and neurochemical information was available on mice than on rats. Over the recent years, the generation of many types of transgenic mice has brought mice to the forefront of this research. Genetically modified mouse models have demonstrated useful to search memory and learning processes and the neurocircuitry and molecular mechanisms involved, as well as to extend therapies for cognitive impairment. A diversity of protocols has been developed to evaluate cognition in mice. The test models have been carefully selected according to reliability of results and disease relevance of the cognitive functions evaluated. Further criteria were ease of application and time efficiency. All tests evaluate slightly different but also interacting aspects or overlapping of learning and memory so that they can be utilized to complement each other in a comprehensive evaluation of cognitive function. In this chapter, three main protocols for evaluation cognitive/behavioral effect induced by drugs in postnatal mouse such as passive avoidance, radial arm maze (RAM), and Morris water maze (MWM) tests are described.
长期以来，在研究认知障碍方面，小鼠不如大鼠受欢迎，主要是因为与大鼠相比，关于小鼠的神经解剖学和神经化学信息要少得多。近年来，多种类型转基因小鼠的产生使小鼠成为这项研究的前沿对象。基因改造小鼠模型已证明在探究记忆和学习过程以及所涉及的神经回路和分子机制方面很有用，同时也有助于拓展认知障碍的治疗方法。已经开发出多种方案来评估小鼠的认知能力。这些测试模型是根据结果的可靠性以及所评估认知功能与疾病的相关性仔细挑选出来的。其他标准还包括易于应用和时间效率。所有测试评估的学习和记忆方面略有不同但又相互作用或重叠，因此在对认知功能的综合评估中，它们可以相互补充。在本章中，将描述用于评估产后小鼠药物诱导的认知/行为效应的三种主要方案，如被动回避、放射状臂迷宫（RAM）和莫里斯水迷宫（MWM）测试。
