Effects of neocortical ectopias upon the acquisition and retention of a non-spatial reference memory task in BXSB mice

BXSB mice have a 40-60% incidence of small, focal, neocortical dysplasias called ectopias. Ectopics and non-ectopics were compared on horizontal-vertical discrimination learning, a non-spatial cognitive task. No differences were found during acquisition. Ectopic mice, however, were superior when retested 8 weeks later. The results support prior findings that ectopic mice have better long-term spatial memory and extend this conclusion to the non-spatial domain. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.