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New automated procedure to assess context recognition memory in mice

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Abstract

Rationale and objectives

Recognition memory is an important aspect of human declarative memory and is one of the routine memory abilities altered in patients with amnestic syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease. In rodents, recognition memory has been most widely assessed using the novel object preference paradigm, which exploits the spontaneous preference that animals display for novel objects. Here, we used nose-poke units instead of objects to design a simple automated method for assessing context recognition memory in mice.

Methods

In the acquisition trial, mice are exposed for the first time to an operant chamber with one blinking nose-poke unit. In the choice session, a novel nonblinking nose-poke unit is inserted into an empty spatial location and the number of nose poking dedicated to each set of nose-poke unit is used as an index of recognition memory.

Results

We report that recognition performance varies as a function of the length of the acquisition period and the retention delay and is sensitive to conventional amnestic treatments. By manipulating the features of the operant chamber during a brief retrieval episode (3-min long), we further demonstrate that reconsolidation of the original contextual memory depends on the magnitude and the type of environmental changes introduced into the familiar spatial environment.

Conclusions

These results show that the nose-poke recognition task provides a rapid and reliable way for assessing context recognition memory in mice and offers new possibilities for the deciphering of the brain mechanisms governing the reconsolidation process.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), the Université de Strasbourg (UDS). The authors thank Dr. Steve Brooks for the English corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Médecine Transrationnelle et neurogénétique, IGBMC (Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire), 67400, Illkirch, France

    David Reiss, Ondine Walter, Lucie Bourgoin, Brigitte L. Kieffer & Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal

  2. Inserm, U596, 67400, Illkirch, France

    Brigitte L. Kieffer

  3. CNRS, UMR7104, 67400, Illkirch, France

    Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal

  4. Université de Strasbourg, 67000, Strasbourg, France

    Ondine Walter

  5. Université de Bordeaux I, Bordeaux, France

    Lucie Bourgoin

  6. Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC), Aix-Marseille University, CNRS UMR 7291, FR3C 3512, 13331, Marseille, France

    Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal

Authors
  1. David Reiss
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  2. Ondine Walter
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  3. Lucie Bourgoin
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  4. Brigitte L. Kieffer
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  5. Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal
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Correspondence to Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal.

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Reiss, D., Walter, O., Bourgoin, L. et al. New automated procedure to assess context recognition memory in mice. Psychopharmacology 231, 4337–4347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3577-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3577-3

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