Cognition – Two-choice Swim Test
This task is a simple, visual (non-spatial) discrimination task in which an animal must learn to associate a visual cue with escape from the swim tank (the submerged platform). Mice are placed in the center of a water-filled tank and the choice of direction towards the platform is recorded. This task is especially useful for assessing cognition in mice with motor impairments as the accuracy of their "choices" (swimming either toward or away from the cue) can be measured independently of their latency of escape, which may be confounded by poor swimming performance. Cognitive flexibility can also be assessed in this task using reversal paradigm in which the platform is moved to the opposite end of the tank.
Mutant R6/2 mice, a transgenic mouse model of Huntington’s Disease, show similar acquisition of the task during training compared to Wild Type littermates (WT), but cognitive impairment is observed in transgenic mice during reversal trials.
APP/PS1 mice (approx 3 months of age) (A) are significantly more active compared to their wild type (WT) littermates, as determined by the total number of arm entries, but (B) have a spatial memory deficit as is shown by a significant decrease in the number of alternations.
