Eight Arm Maze for Mice

Abstract

Certain behaviors have been found to be mediated by the brain. Eight-arm maze behavior is a measure of spatial-memory, and the integrity of this has been connected with the integrity of the hippocampus in rats (Olton & Samuelson, 1976). Mice are useful animals in neuropharmacological research, but an apparatus for mice has not yet been developed, perhaps because mice were thought incapable of executing intricate tasks as compared with rats. We developed an eight-arm-maze adapted for mice to be used for such an experiment and also developed a procedure that was found to be highly useful and easy for mice to carry out, in order to increase their motivation to work in the apparatus. In our early studies we had shown that neonatal exposure to phenobarbital destroyed hippocampal neurons (Yanai & Bergman, 1981). Consequently, we used a sensitive eight-arm-maze to show that even small differences in performance can be clearly shown in this maze.