Title

Dissociable cognitive impairments in two strains of transgenic Alzheimer's disease mice revealed by a battery of object-based tests

Authors

Samantha D. Creighton, University of Guelph
Ari L. Mendell, University of Guelph
Daniel Palmer, University of Guelph
Bettina E. Kalisch, University of Guelph
Neil J. MacLusky, University of Guelph
Vania F Prado, Western University
Marco A.M Prado, Western University
Boyer D. Winters, University of Guelph

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-11-2019

Issue

1

Journal

Scientific Reports

Volume

9

First Page

1

Last Page

12

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37312-0

Abstract

Object recognition tasks detect cognitive deficits in transgenic Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse models. Object recognition, however, is not a unitary process, and there are many uncharacterized facets of object processing with relevance to AD. We therefore systematically evaluated object processing in 5xFAD and 3xTG AD mice to clarify the nature of object recognition-related deficits. Twelve-month-old male and female 5xFAD and 3xTG mice were assessed on tasks for object identity recognition, spatial recognition, and multisensory object perception. Memory and multisensory perceptual impairments were observed, with interesting dissociations between transgenic AD strains and sex that paralleled neuropathological changes. Overreliance on the widespread "object recognition" task threatens to slow discovery of potentially significant and clinically relevant behavioural effects related to this multifaceted cognitive function. The current results support the use of carefully designed object-based test batteries to clarify the relationship between "object recognition" impairments and specific aspects of AD pathology in rodent models.

Notes

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

Journal: Scientific Reports

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.