The Barnes maze, a well-known spatial-learning paradigm, is based on the innate fear of rodents of large open spaces and their drive to hide. However, additional aversive stimuli (strong light and threatening sounds) are often necessary to provoke the hiding response while rendering the method cumbersome and more stressful. Our objective was to establish a Barnes maze-learning paradigm in mice using palatable food as a reward. After habituating male C57BL6/J or NMRI mice to the reward, the experimenter and the apparatus, either a slow (2 trials/day) or a massive conditioning schedule (4 trials/day), was run. Acquisition training was carried out until mice could locate the reward box with a maximum of one hole error. Then, the box was replaced to another location (reversal phase). Mice needed to relearn the new position with the same criterion. One week later, retention trials were performed. Both strains could reach the learning criteria; in the massive training within a shorter period. Spatial memory was demonstrated in the reversal and retention trials. Our results show that palatable food can be used as an efficient motivator to acquire allocentric navigation in the Barnes maze with the additional advantage of being less stressful.

中文翻译：

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利用食欲动机训练小鼠在巴恩斯迷宫中进行空间学习

巴恩斯迷宫是一种著名的空间学习范式，它是基于啮齿类动物对大片开放空间的天生恐惧和隐藏欲。然而，通常需要额外的厌恶刺激（强光和威胁声音）来激发隐藏反应，同时使该方法变得麻烦且压力更大。我们的目标是在小鼠中建立巴恩斯迷宫学习范例，使用可口的食物作为奖励。在使雄性 C57BL6/J 或 NMRI 小鼠习惯于奖励后，实验者和设备运行缓慢（每天 2 次试验）或大规模调节计划（每天 4 次试验）。进行获取训练直至小鼠能够以最大一孔误差定位奖励盒。然后，盒子被更换到另一个位置（反转阶段）。小鼠需要以相同的标准重新学习新的位置。一周后，进行了保留试验。两种菌株均能达到学习标准；在较短的时间内进行大量的训练。空间记忆在逆转和保留试验中得到了证明。我们的结果表明，可口的食物可以作为在巴恩斯迷宫中获得异中心导航的有效激励因素，并且具有压力较小的额外优势。