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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Learning and Memory
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1492327

A bespoke water T-maze apparatus and protocol: An optimized, reliable, and repeatable method for screening learning, memory, and executive functioning in laboratory mice

Provisionally accepted
Jeremy D. Bailoo Jeremy D. Bailoo 1*Susan E. Bergeson Susan E. Bergeson 1Igor Ponomarev Igor Ponomarev 2Joshua O. Willms Joshua O. Willms 2Brent R. Kisby Brent R. Kisby 2Gail A. Cornwall Gail A. Cornwall 1Clinton C. MacDonald Clinton C. MacDonald 1John J. Lawrence John J. Lawrence 2,3Vadivel Ganapathy Vadivel Ganapathy 4Sathish Sivaprakasam Sathish Sivaprakasam 1Praneetha Panthagani Praneetha Panthagani 2Scott Trasti Scott Trasti 1Justin A. Varholick Justin A. Varholick 5Michael Findlater Michael Findlater 6Amrika Deonarine Amrika Deonarine 7*
  • 1 Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • 2 Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • 3 Garrison Institute on Aging, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • 4 Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, United States
  • 5 Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
  • 6 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, California, United States
  • 7 Department of Civil, Environmental, & Construction Engineering, Edward E. Whitacre, Jr. College of Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Morris Water Maze (MWM) is the most commonly used assay for evaluating learning and memory in laboratory mice. Despite its widespread use, contemporary reviews have highlighted substantial methodological variation in experimental protocols and that the associated testing procedures are acutely (each trial) and chronically (testing across days) stressful; stress impairs attention, memory consolidation and the retrieval of learned information. Moreover, the interpretation of behavior within the MWM is often difficult because of wall hugging, non-spatial swim strategies, floating, and jumping off the escape platform. Together, these issues may compromise the reproducibility, generalizability, and predictability of experimental results, as well as animal welfare. To address these issues, and as an initial proof-of-principle, we first narrowed the spatial dimensions of the MWM by using a T-insert, which constrained and reduced the overall length of time/distance that the animal must swim in order to navigate to the escape platform, thus reducing stress and off-task behavior. Given the robust performance observed across spatial acquisition (learning and memory) as well as during reversal learning (executive function), we further reduced (by 43%) the overall distance and time that the animal must swim in order to find the escape platform in a bespoke standalone Water T-Maze (WTM). We show, across five experiments, procedural refinements to our protocol and demonstrate robust, reliable and reproducible indicators of learning, memory and executive functioning in a task that is also significantly more efficient (3 days of testing within the WTM vs. 11 days of testing within the MWM). Taken together, our WTM apparatus and protocol are a significant improvement over other waterbased apparatuses and protocols for evaluating learning, memory, and executive functioning in laboratory mice.

    Keywords: refinement, Morris water maze, MWM, T-water maze, Water T-maze, reproducibility, protocol, Animal Welfare

    Received: 06 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bailoo, Bergeson, Ponomarev, Willms, Kisby, Cornwall, MacDonald, Lawrence, Ganapathy, Sivaprakasam, Panthagani, Trasti, Varholick, Findlater and Deonarine. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jeremy D. Bailoo, Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, 79430, Texas, United States
    Amrika Deonarine, Department of Civil, Environmental, & Construction Engineering, Edward E. Whitacre, Jr. College of Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 79409−1023, Texas, United States

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