| First Author | Ohta A | Year | 2001 |
| Journal | Neurobiol Aging | Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 3 | Pages | 479-84 |
| PubMed ID | 11378255 | Mgi Jnum | J:71539 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2150282 | Doi | 10.1016/s0197-4580(01)00206-8 |
| Citation | Ohta A, et al. (2001) Deterioration in learning and memory of fear conditioning in response to context in aged SAMP8 mice. Neurobiol Aging 22(3):479-84 |
| abstractText | This study examined age-dependent deficits in the learning and memory of fear conditioning, using a newly developed senescence-accelerated mouse (SAMP8) model of age-related brain dysfunction and its genetically related inbred strain (SAMR1). The mice were classically conditioned to tone by giving aversive foot shocks in a distinct experimental box (context). After conditioning, fear in response to the original context without the tone and to the tone in a different context were tested with no shocks. Freezing behavior was used as a reliable index of fear. At 4 and 8 months, contextual fear was weaker in the accelerated senescence-prone SAMP8 mice than in the accelerated senescence-resistant SAMR1 mice. However, at 1 and 2 months, both SAMP8 and SAMR1 mice showed significant contextual fear to equivalent levels. Aging did not affect the fear response to tone. These results indicate that SAMP8 mice have age-related learning and memory deficits in their fear response evoked by contextual but not explicit tone stimuli. Age-related hippocampal dysfunction is suggested to be the cause of these age-related deficits in contextual fear conditioning in SAMP8 mice. |
