1. Mid-Adulthood Cognitive Training Improves Performance in a Spatial Task but Does Not Ameliorate Hippocampal Pathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
- Author
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Williams E, Mutlu-Smith M, Alex A, Chin XW, Spires-Jones T, and Wang SH
- Subjects
- Humans, Mice, Animals, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor genetics, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor metabolism, Mice, Transgenic, Gliosis therapy, Gliosis pathology, Cognitive Training, Hippocampus pathology, Disease Models, Animal, Maze Learning, Presenilin-1 genetics, Presenilin-1 metabolism, Amyloid beta-Peptides metabolism, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Alzheimer Disease genetics, Alzheimer Disease therapy, Alzheimer Disease pathology
- Abstract
Background: Prior experience in early life has been shown to improve performance in aging and mice with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. However, whether cognitive training at a later life stage would benefit subsequent cognition and reduce pathology in AD mice needs to be better understood., Objective: This study aimed to verify if behavioral training in mid-adulthood would improve subsequent cognition and reduce AD pathology and astrogliosis., Methods: Mixed-sex APP/PS1 and wildtype littermate mice received a battery of behavioral training, composed of spontaneous alternation in the Y-maze, novel object recognition and location tasks, and spatial training in the water maze, or handling only at 7 months of age. The impact of AD genotype and prior training on subsequent learning and memory of aforementioned tasks were assessed at 9 months., Results: APP/PS1 mice made more errors than wildtype littermates in the radial-arm water maze (RAWM) task. Prior training prevented this impairment in APP/PS1 mice. Prior training also contributed to better efficiency in finding the escape platform in both APP/PS1 mice and wildtype littermates. Short-term and long-term memory of this RAWM task, of a reversal task, and of a transfer task were comparable among APP/PS1 and wildtype mice, with or without prior training. Amyloid pathology and astrogliosis in the hippocampus were also comparable between the APP/PS1 groups., Conclusion: These data suggest that cognitive training in mid-adulthood improves subsequent accuracy in AD mice and efficiency in all mice in the spatial task. Cognitive training in mid-adulthood provides no clear benefit on memory or on amyloid pathology in midlife.
- Published
- 2023
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