The use of the Morris Water Maze in the study of memory and learning.

Although the Morris Water Maze (MWM) was introduced only a few years ago, this technique has gained wide popularity, as the large number of publications in which it is employed, testifies. A review of the literature reveals that a wide variety of technical variables were used by the various research groups employing the MWM. This review describes the major changes in research variables, i.e., environmental variables, various manipulations, and the effects of diet or age on performance. The general principles of learning as demonstrated by the MWM are discussed.

[1]  Bryan Kolb,et al.  Spatial mapping: definitive disruption by hippocampal or medial frontal cortical damage in the rat , 1982, Neuroscience Letters.

[2]  Jan Bures,et al.  Differential effects of cholinergic blockade on performance of rats in the water tank navigation task and in a radial water maze. , 1986 .

[3]  A. Nagaoka,et al.  Characteristics of memory impairment following lesioning of the basal forebrain and medial septal nucleus in rats , 1987, Brain Research.

[4]  Anat Biegon,et al.  Quantitative histochemistry of brain acetylcholinesterase and learning rate in the aged rat , 1986, Neurobiology of Aging.

[5]  R J Sutherland,et al.  Being there: a novel demonstration of latent spatial learning in the rat. , 1982, Behavioral and neural biology.

[6]  A. Björklund,et al.  Transplantation of embryonic ventral forebrain neurons to the neocortex of rats with lesions of nucleus basalis magnocellularis—II. Sensorimotor and learning impairments , 1985, Neuroscience.

[7]  E. Tolman Cognitive maps in rats and men. , 1948, Psychological review.

[8]  M. Gallagher,et al.  An evaluation of spatial information processing in aged rats. , 1987, Behavioral neuroscience.

[9]  R. Carasso,et al.  Effects of dietary fats on learning, pain threshold, thermoregulation and motor activity in rats: interaction with the length of feeding period. , 1987, International Journal of Neuroscience.

[10]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Dissociation of the contributions of the prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial thalamic nucleus to spatially guided behavior in the rat , 1982, Behavioural Brain Research.

[11]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Cortical noradrenaline depletion eliminates sparing of spatial learning after neonatal frontal cortex damage in the rat , 1982, Neuroscience Letters.

[12]  Development of interocular equivalence in rats trained on a distal-cue navigation task. , 1987 .

[13]  P. Morgane,et al.  Spatial cue utilization in chronically malnourished rats: task-specific learning deficits. , 1986, Developmental psychobiology.

[14]  J. W. Rudy,et al.  Ontogeny of spatial navigation behaviors in the rat: dissociation of "proximal"- and "distal"-cue-based behaviors. , 1987, Behavioral neuroscience.

[15]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Cholinergic receptor blockade impairs spatial localization by use of distal cues in the rat. , 1982, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[16]  F. Gage,et al.  Grafted septal neurons form cholinergic synaptic connections in the dentate gyrus of behaviorally impaired aged rats , 1986, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[17]  L. Nadel,et al.  The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map , 1978 .

[18]  I. Whishaw,et al.  Postsurgical enrichment aids adult hemidecorticate rats on a spatial navigation task. , 1984, Behavioral and neural biology.

[19]  A. Levy,et al.  Radial arm maze performance of mice: acquisition and atropine effects. , 1983, Behavioral and neural biology.

[20]  I. Whishaw Cholinergic receptor blockade in the rat impairs locale but not taxon strategies for place navigation in a swimming pool. , 1985, Behavioral neuroscience.

[21]  R. Morris Modelling amnesia and the study of memory in animals , 1983, Trends in Neurosciences.

[22]  R. Morris,et al.  Place navigation impaired in rats with hippocampal lesions , 1982, Nature.

[23]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Neonatal hemidecortication or frontal cortex ablation produces similar behavioral sparing but opposite effects on morphogenesis of remaining cortex. , 1983, Behavioral neuroscience.

[24]  O. Burešová,et al.  Persistence of spatial memory in the Morris water tank task. , 1984, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[25]  O. Burešová,et al.  Post-trial flicker stimulation interferes with spatial memory in the Morris water maze , 1985, Neuroscience Letters.

[26]  Fred H. Gage,et al.  Spatial learning and motor deficits in aged rats , 1984, Neurobiology of Aging.

[27]  S. Yehuda Effects of alpha-MSH, TRH and AVP on learning and memory, pain threshold, and motor activity: preliminary results. , 1987, The International journal of neuroscience.

[28]  A. Fisher,et al.  AF64A Induced Cholinotoxicity: Behavioral and Biochemical Correlates , 1986 .

[29]  I. Whishaw,et al.  Dopamine depletion, stimulation or blockade in the rat disrupts spatial navigation and locomotion dependent upon beacon or distal cues , 1985, Behavioural Brain Research.

[30]  B. Skinner Contingencies Of Reinforcement , 1969 .

[31]  I. Whishaw,et al.  Decortication abolishes place but not cue learning in rats , 1984, Behavioural Brain Research.

[32]  I. Whishaw,et al.  Disruption of central cholinergic systems in the rat by basal forebrain lesions or atropine: Effects on feeding, sensorimotor behaviour, locomotor activity and spatial navigation , 1985, Behavioural Brain Research.

[33]  A. Albanese,et al.  Choline acetyltxansferase (CUT) activity Wers in right and left human temporal lobes , 1981, Neurology.

[34]  F. Gage,et al.  Cholinergic septal grafts into the hippocampal formation improve spatial learning and memory in aged rats by an atropine-sensitive mechanism , 1986, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[35]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Effects of neonatal forebrain noradrenaline depletion on recovery from brain damage: performance on a spatial navigation task as a function of age of surgery and postsurgical housing. , 1986, Behavioral and neural biology.

[36]  G. Lynch,et al.  Selective impairment of learning and blockade of long-term potentiation by an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, AP5 , 1986, Nature.

[37]  F. Gage,et al.  Amelioration of cholinergic neuron atrophy and spatial memory impairment in aged rats by nerve growth factor , 1987, Nature.

[38]  R. Morris,et al.  Lack of task specificity and absence of posttraining effects of atropine on learning. , 1986, Behavioral neuroscience.

[39]  R. Sutherland,et al.  A comparison of the contributions of the frontal and parietal association cortex to spatial localization in rats. , 1983, Behavioral neuroscience.

[40]  O Buresová,et al.  The effect of hypothermia on the rat's spatial memory in the water tank task. , 1984, Behavioral and neural biology.

[41]  R. Morris Spatial Localization Does Not Require the Presence of Local Cues , 1981 .

[42]  G. Handelmann,et al.  Hippocampus, space, and memory , 1979 .

[43]  S. Kish,et al.  Learning is improved by a soybean oil diet in rats. , 1986, Life sciences.

[44]  I. Krekule,et al.  On-demand platform improves accuracy of the Morris water maze procedure , 1985, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[45]  Winford A. Gordon,et al.  Effects of scopolamine, pentobarbital, and amphetamine on radial arm maze performance in the rat , 1980, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[46]  R. Sutherland,et al.  Place navigation by rats in a swimming pool. , 1984 .

[47]  R. Morris,et al.  The effects of central catecholamine depletions on spatial learning in rats , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.

[48]  R. Sutherland,et al.  A behavioural analysis of spatial localization following electrolytic, kainate- or colchicine-induced damage to the hippocampal formation in the rat , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.

[49]  A. Björklund,et al.  Intrahippocampal septal grafts ameliorate learning impairments in aged rats. , 1984, Science.

[50]  I Q Whishaw,et al.  Visits to starts, routes, and places by rats (Rattus norvegicus) in swimming pool navigation tasks. , 1986, Journal of comparative psychology.

[51]  A. Milner,et al.  Stimulus sampling and the use of distal visual cues in rats with lesions of the superior colliculus , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.