Multifaceted Memory Assessment in Mice

The behavioral test battery consisted of five memory tests performed in the following order: Y-maze forced alternation, novel object recognition, Morris water maze, radial arm water maze and Y-maze spontaneous alternation (Fig 1). Tests were conducted in the order of increasing invasiveness, with the exception of the Y-maze spontaneous alternation test. This test was conducted at the end of the test battery to minimize interference with the forced alternation test at the beginning of the study. Mice had multiple days of resting time between tests to decrease carryover effects from prior tests. The order of tests in which mice were tested was the same for each mouse; each mouse was tested once per test. Black and white cues were placed at the walls around the testing area for all tests except the novel object recognition trials. Cues were changed after the forced alternation test and remained the same for the remaining tasks. All test trials were video-recorded, tracked, and analyzed with ANY-maze^™ tracking software (version 499g Beta). Locomotor activity data for each test are summarized in Table 1. Mice were habituated to the testing room for 30 min at the beginning of each test day. All tests in the battery were conducted by the same experimenter. During the test trials, the experimenter was separated from the testing area by a curtain. All experiments comparing 129S6/Tg2576 to wild type mice were blinded. Memory tests are described in the order the tests were conducted.