Rat`s Spatial Learning in an Novel Elevated Y-Maze

DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP16.46

Authors: Endri Rama, Genci Capi, Norifumi Tanaka and Shigenori Kawahara

Abstract:  In our previous work [1] we investigated the rats strategy to reach the target food location in an Y-maze environment. However, all the experiments were held in a lighted environment, where rats can perceive the routes. In this work we are focused in investigating the rat behavior in dark environments. We add some visual cues, like: red light or green light signs, in the environment and monitored the behavior of rat in term of time to reach the target location and success rate. As the environment changes, the rats follows wrong routes and spent more time to achieve the reward. The results show that depending on the visual cues, rats use different strategy for navigation in dark environment resulting in a faster adaptation to the environment changes

Keywords:Rat, behavior, dark environment, Y-maze, landmark, visualcues,hippocampus, striatum.