Measuring Behavior 2005: Wittnerova and Bures

Allothetic and idiothetic navigation in triangular pool and in three different sizes of circular pool

S. Wittnerova and J. Bures

Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

Research into allothetic and idiothetic navigation of laboratory rats did not yet lead to de.nite assessment of the importance of hippocampus for these modes of spatial cognition. The purpose of the present study is to develop a task based on navigation to a single intramaze location that can be implemented with the same success from any point at the circumference of the circular pool and from three angles of the equilateral triangular pool either by allothesis (in light) or by idiothesis (in darkness). Convenient test location is centrally located hidden platform which can be reached by a rat swimming perpendicularly to the wall of the circular pool or along the line dividing the angle of the triangular pool for a distance equal to the radius of the pool. Contribution of the above navigation modes to the animal´s ability to search the goal in the center of the pool was examined in adult male Long-Evans rats.

The rats were trained from three start positions in the large and middle sized circular pools (South, near to NorthEast, near to NorthWest) corresponding to the positions of the angles of the triangular pool. In the experiment were used large circular pool (diameter 188 cm), middle sized circular pool (diameter 120 cm), small circular pool (diameter 88 cm) and equilateral triangular pool fitting inside the large circular pool. When rats alternating escape to the platform in center of a small and of a large pool were given a probe trial in the large pool in darkness, they concentrated their search first to the center of the small circular pool and then to the center of the large circular pool.

All experiments complied with the Czech law and with the directive of the European Communities Council No. 86/609/EEC on protection of laboratory animals. Supported by GAÈR grant 309/03/0715, by AV0Z 50110509 and by MSMT ÈR project number 1M0002375201.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.