Sex differences in the acquisition of a radial maze task in the CD-1 mouse

The purpose of the present study was to investigate spatial processing performance in male and female CD-1 mice. A substantial literature supports the existence of significant sex differences in both human and rodent models of learning and memory. The nature of these differences is dependent upon th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiology & behavior 2002-06, Vol.76 (2), p.213-217
Main Authors: LaBuda, Christopher J, Mellgren, Roger L, Hale, Robert L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition. Intelligence
Eight-arm radial maze
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hippocampus
Learning
Learning. Memory
Male
Maze Learning - physiology
Memory
Memory - physiology
Mice
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reasoning. Problem solving
Sex Characteristics
Sex differences
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial processing
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Summary:The purpose of the present study was to investigate spatial processing performance in male and female CD-1 mice. A substantial literature supports the existence of significant sex differences in both human and rodent models of learning and memory. The nature of these differences is dependent upon the parameters of the task, species and strain of animal. In the present study, male and female CD-1 mice were trained for 3 days to perform a 4/8 spatial memory task in an eight-arm radial maze and then tested for a total of 5 days. On the final day of radial maze testing, male CD-1 mice committed marginally significantly fewer reference memory (RM) and significantly fewer working memory (WM) errors on the radial maze task than female CD-1 mice. In addition, female mice obtained significantly fewer rewards during the final two testing sessions. The present data provide the first evidence for sex differences in radial maze learning in the CD-1 mouse, a strain known for its estrogen insensitivity. Consistent with the majority of literature that supports sex differences in spatial processing in rodents, female CD-1 mice acquired significantly fewer rewards than male CD-1 mice during an eight-arm radial maze task.
ISSN:0031-9384
1873-507X
DOI:10.1016/S0031-9384(02)00713-8