Y-maze
LSID: http://syli.cz/urn:lsid:public.sylics.com:conventionaltest:A8D4-G836-B725Materials and Methods
Mice were singly housed on sawdust in standard Makrolon type II cages enriched with cardboard nesting material for at least one week prior to experiments, with water and food ad libitum (7:00/19:00 lights on/off; providing an abrupt phase transition).
Short-term spatial memory and alternation was assessed in a Y-maze (white PVC, arms 40 x 9.5 cm, walls 15.5 cm high). The Y-maze was illuminated with a single white fluorescent light bulb from above. After placing the mouse in the center of the Y-maze behavior was video tracked for 10 min (Viewer 2, BIOBSERVE GmbH, Bonn, Germany). To counteract the detection of distance moved due to jitter of body reference point produced by grainy video signal, track correction option was set to 1. The border between center and arm entries was defined at 3 cm into each arm. Zone visits were analyzed using the tracking software, which was set to count zone visits if both the nose and body reference point had crossed the zone border. Short-term spatial memory performance (Spontaneous Alternation Performance ;SAP) is defined by the number of times a mouse visits all three arms without revisiting one of the arms (correct triads) divided by the total number of arm visits. Revisiting the same arm (Same Arm Returns; SAR) and entries into an arm that was visited 1 entry ago (Alternate Arm Returns; AAR), both divided by the total number of entries, are taken as measures of short-term spatial memory errors. Mice that make fewer than 10 entries are excluded, since SAP, SAR and AAR cannot accurately be calculated if the number of visits is too low.
Parameter information
| Parameter name | Units |
| Spontaneous Alternation Performance | Percent |
| Spontaneous Alternation Performance (first 30) | Percent |
| Total arm visits | Number |
| Alternate Arm Returns | Percent |
| Same Arm Returns | Percent |
| SAP per block of 10 visits | SAP (%) |
| AAR per block of 10 visits | AAR (%) |
| SAR per block of 10 visits | SAR (%) |
| Spontaneous Alternation Performance (First and Second 5 minutes) | SAP (%) |
| Alternate Arm Returns (First and Second 5 minutes) | AAR (%) |
| Same Arm Returns (First and Second 5 minutes) | SAR (%) |
| Spontaneous Alternation Performance (First 5 min) | Percent |