Y experiment maze Double Y

for animal researchfor micefor rats

The double Y-maze was developed as a measure of mnemonic function (Mallet and Beninger, 1993). The double Y-maze presents the mouse or rat with two consecutive tasks on each trial: a spatial discrimination task in the first ‘Y’, followed by a delayed alternation task in the second ‘Y’. In trained rodents, the first task is a test of reference (trial independent) memory, while the second task is a test of reference and working memory (trial dependent) memory. The tasks make identical demands on the rodent in all ways (eg motivation, locomotion, sensory perception), except for the addition of the working memory component of the second task. Thus, if a trained rodent performs as expected in the first task of the maze (involving reference memory only), then poorly in the second task (involving reference and working memory), the difference can confidently be attributed to a failure in working memory.