Bright lighting conditions during testing increase thigmotaxis and impair water maze performance in BALB/c mice

• Published in: Behavioural brain research 2012, Vol.226 (1), p.26-31
• Main Authors: Huang, Yan, Zhou, Wenxia, Zhang, Yongxiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Anxiety; Anxiety - blood; BALB/c mice; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Correlation analysis; Corticosterone; Corticosterone - blood; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Illumination; Learning; Light condition; Light effects; Lighting; Maze Learning - physiology; Memory; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Morris water maze task; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Swimming - physiology; Thigmotaxis
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.08.043

► BALB/c mice had a higher level of thigmotaxis under BLC than under DLC in Morris water maze task. ► BALB/c mice had higher levels of serum corticosterone under BLC than under DLC in Morris water maze task. ► The thigmotaxis and serum corticosterone have a negative correlation with water maze performance. In this study, we investigated the performance of BALB/c mice in Morris water maze task under two different illumination (bright and dim light) conditions. The results show that BALB/c mice could not complete the Morris water maze task under bright light (BLC), but performed very well under dim light (DLC). Animals that swam under BLC had a higher serum corticosterone level than those under DLC. Animals pretrained under DLC had a lower serum corticosterone level than those directly exposed to BLC. Our results also show that animals under BLC had a higher level of thigmotaxis (a behavioral anxiety measure during testing) than under DLC. Correlation analysis shows that corticosterone and thigmotaxis levels have a positive correlation with escape latency, indicating that corticosterone and thigmotaxis levels have a negative correlation with learning/memory performance. These results suggest that BALB/c mice have the ability to learn a spatial task; under BLC, they performed poorly owing to a high level of thigmotaxis.