Effects of sex and strain on exploratory locomotion and development of nonreinforced maze patrolling

Continuous recording of locomotion in an enclosed maze with no reinforcement other than that intrinsic to ambulation through the maze provided evidence for a dissociation between the efficiency of patrolling the entire maze and locomotor activity. Patrolling efficiency improved with repeated exposure to a single maze or to two similar maze configurations but not with daily presentation of dissimilar mazes. There were only small strain and sex differences in the development of efficient patrolling, whereas locomotor activity was considerably higher in female Roman high-avoidance (RHA) rats than in female Roman low-avoidance rats and higher in RHA female rats than in RHA male rats.Continuous recording of locomotion in an enclosed maze with no reinforcement other than that intrinsic to ambulation through the maze provided evidence for a dissociation between the efficiency of patrolling the entire maze and locomotor activity. Patrolling efficiency improved with repeated exposure to a single maze or to two similar maze configurations but not with daily presentation of dissimilar mazes. There were only small strain and sex differences in the development of efficient patrolling, whereas locomotor activity was considerably higher in female Roman high-avoidance (RHA) rats than in female Roman low-avoidance rats and higher in RHA female rats than in RHA male rats.