Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 13 pp 5990—6010

Cognitive rescue in aging through prior training in rats

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Figure 2. Short-term retention of everyday spatial memory in aging. (A) Rats received a weak encoding (1 reward, filled circle). One hour later, they were tested in a probe trial with 5 non-rewarded sandwells (open circles). (B) The percentage of correct digging was significantly above chance (dashed line; one-sample t-test, no prior training, t11 = 4.01, p = 0.002, attrition of 1 rat; priorly trained, t12 = 7.04, p < 0.001) after weak encoding in both groups and the group difference was significant (unpaired t-test, t23 = 2.14, p = 0.043). The statistical power of short-term memory in the group without prior training was 0.99 and the Cohen’s d was 1.16. (C) Similar to procedures in A except that the start location was changed at the probe test. (D) The percentage of correct digging was significantly above chance (dashed line; one-sample t-test, t11 = 4.86, p < 0.001). Data are presented as mean ± SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005.