Up-regulation of exploratory tendencies does not enhance general learning abilities in juvenile or young-adult outbred mice
Up-regulation of exploratory tendencies does not enhance general learning abilities in juvenile or young-adult outbred mice
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DOI：
10.1016/j.nlm.2008.04.007
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发表时间：
2008-09-01
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Matzel, Louis D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Light, Kenneth R.;Kolata, Stefan;Matzel, Louis D.
“一般认知能力”描述了一种超越特定学习领域并影响广泛认知技能的特质。个体动物（包括人类）在表达这种特征方面表现出广泛的差异。我们先前已经确定，探索的倾向与个别远系小鼠的一般认知能力高度相关。在这里，我们问，诱导探索行为的增加是否会促进动物一般学习能力的提高。在三个实验中，幼年和未成年雄性CD-1远系杂交小鼠从出生后第39天（幼年）和第61天（年轻成年）开始暴露于12种新环境，之后它们作为成年人（从出生后第79天开始）接受了一系列认知和探索性测试。暴露于新的环境促进增加探索（在多个措施）在两个不同的任务，包括高架加迷宫。然而，随后的一般学习能力测试（五项不同学习任务的综合表现）确定，青少年或半成年人暴露于新环境对成年后的一般学习能力没有影响。因此，虽然暴露于新的环境促进了小鼠探索倾向的持久增加，但这些探索的增加似乎不会对一般学习能力产生因果影响。(C)2008年爱思唯尔公司All rights reserved.
"General cognitive ability" describes a trait that transcends specific learning domains and impacts a wide range of cognitive skills. Individual animals (including humans) exhibit wide variations in their expression of this trait. We have previously determined that the propensity for exploration is highly correlated with the general cognitive abilities of individual outbred mice. Here, we asked if inducing an increase in exploratory behaviors would causally promote an increase in animals' general learning abilities. In three experiments, juvenile and young-adult male CD-1 outbred mice were exposed to 12 novel environments starting at post-natal days 39 (juvenile) and 61 (Young adult), after which they underwent a series of cognitive and exploratory tests as adults (beginning at post-natal day 79). Exposure to novel environments promoted increases in exploration (across multiple measures) on two different tasks, including an elevated plus maze. However, a subsequent test of general learning abilities (aggregate performance across five distinct learning tasks) determined that exposure to novel environments as juveniles or young-adults had no effect on general learning abilities in adulthood. Therefore, while exposure to novel environments promotes long-lasting increases in mice's exploratory tendencies, these increases in exploration do not appear to causally impact general learning abilities. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.