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Ability to Discriminate Visual Signals in the Morris Water Maze in High- and Low-Impulsivity Rats

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High-impulsivity (HI) rats learned to locate a visible platform bearing a special stimulus object (a bannerette) in the Morris water maze more quickly than low-impulsivity (LI) rats. HI rats also successfully acquired differentiation between a sail (the differential stimulus object) and the bannerette, as assessed in terms of a decrease in the number of incorrect swims to the location of the sail. During differentiation, HI rats reached the platform more quickly than LI rats and thus swam shorter distances. In the case of reverse differentiation (remodeling), between-group differences in platform reaching time and distance covered disappeared. However, the number of swims to the differential object (now the bannerette) by HI rats decreased, which did not occur in LI animals. These data provide evidence that “egocentric” tasks in the Morris water maze with the platform visible and bearing the bannerette are solved more easily by HI rats, while “allocentric” tasks associated with finding a platform hidden beneath the surface of the water are solved better by LI animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    M. I. Zaichenko, G. Kh. Merzhanova & G. A. Grigoryan

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  1. M. I. Zaichenko
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  2. G. Kh. Merzhanova
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  3. G. A. Grigoryan
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Correspondence to M. I. Zaichenko.

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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 231–242, March–April, 2020.

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Zaichenko, M.I., Merzhanova, G.K. & Grigoryan, G.A. Ability to Discriminate Visual Signals in the Morris Water Maze in High- and Low-Impulsivity Rats. Neurosci Behav Physi 50, 1155–1162 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-01018-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-01018-6

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