Morris experiment maze

waterfor animal researchfor mice

Description The Dry Morris Water Maze is a dry land version of the Morris Water Maze (MWM). The task is used in the assessment of spatial learning and memory. Much like the Morris Water Maze, the Dry Morris Water Maze is a hidden-goal task that requires the food-deprived subjects to locate the hidden food rewards. This food motivated task is less stress-inducing than the conventional MWM which uses the fear of drowning to motivate the subject to find the hidden platform. This task requires the use of hippocampal-based learning to remember and locate the hidden rewards. This ability can be affected by lesions and drugs. The Dry MWM is a food reward-based task. Subjects are placed in an open field that is covered with sawdust and are required to find the hidden food reward. The task can be aided by distal cues placed around the maze. Another dry adaptation of the Morris Water Maze is the Oasis Maze. Instead of a sand bed to hide the reward, as is the case with the food reward dry maze, the Oasis Maze has small hidden wells, scattered around the arena, holding water. Both these tasks use the same principle of spatial learning and memory. Other similar mazes include the Morris Water Maze and Barnes Maze.