PsychoGenics has recently acquired colonies of aged mice and rats, natural models for the study of memory. Aged mice and rats are of great advantage when looking at global memory deficits compared to transgenic models that often concentrate on specific aspects or symptoms of memory loss. The aged animals can be used to complement our existing cognition behavior models. Typically, access to aged colonies has been limited, often requiring significant investment in purchasing dedicated colonies of young animals that require aging over a 12 - 18 month period. The ability for PsychoGenics to provide aged animals from existing colonies allows for the immediate initiation of studies without the need to wait until the colonies have aged sufficiently.

Contextual Fear Conditioning in Aged Mice

In this assay mice are trained to remember that a particular salient context (conditioned stimulus; CS) is associated with an aversive event, in this case a mild foot shock (the unconditioned stimulus, US). Animals that show good learning freeze upon re-presentation of the context (Contextual Fear Conditioning) or the tone (Cued Fear Conditioning).

Rolipram enhances memory in aged mice, as measured by freezing, in the contextual Fear Conditioning paradigm.