A study of remote spatial memory in aged rats

The effect of aging on remote spatial memory was tested in a group of 2-year-old rats (VR-O) that, as young adults, were reared for 3 months in a complex ’village’ environment. The VR-O rats exhibited significant savings in finding the locations of specific reward compartments within the village, relative to a group of old rats (VNR-O) experiencing the village for the first time. The VNR-O rats were also impaired, relative to naive young rats, in learning the reward locations. Probe tests indicated that the VR-O rats retained allocentric spatial memory for the environment and were not using sensory or other non-spatial cues to guide behaviour. Overall, the results indicate that the aged rats experienced a decline in the ability to learn and remember detailed spatial relationships and that the VR-O group's successful performance on the remote spatial memory test was guided by a form of schematic memory that captured the essential features of the village environment. The potential contribution of the hippocampus to the pattern of lost and spared learning and memory observed in the aged rats was discussed.