User:Abmay28/sandbox

Spontaneous alteration is the tendency to want to explore areas or objects that have not been explored as much as other areas or objects. It suggests that curiosity effects our behavior in making choices and is often tested using mice and simple mazes. Spontaneous alteration has set the groundwork to be testing spatial memory.

MAZE TESTS

The Y-maze and T-maze tests used to test spontaneous alteration are essentially the same, the only difference being the angle of where the arms disperse. The mouse is placed in one of the arms and allowed to explore.[1] When the mouse spends time exploring all three arms of the maze there is a high percentage alternation, accordingly if the mouse spends a lot of time in only one arm it is suggested that the mouse doesn’t know what arms it has or hasn’t already visited, which shows a low percentage alternation.[1] The results of these experiments confirm the validity of the spontaneous alteration theory because the mice had a strong tendency to explore the parts of the maze that they haven’t been in as much or the parts of the maze they had not been exploring recently.[2]

Another method of performing the test is was taking one of the arms of the T-maze (or Y-maze) and blocking the entry point (the blocked arm being called the novel arm).[3] With one of the arms blocked off the mouse only had one option to explore.[3] If the mouse was then taken out after exploring the one arm maze, and the barrier was removed, then the mouse placed back into the maze, the mouse would go to the arm that had previously been blocked off and spend more time exploring that arm.[3] This showed that the mouse remembered that it had not explored that area and was eager to. This spontaneous alteration only worked if there was not a long period of time in between the time where the mouse was taken out of the maze and placed back in.[3]

SPATIAL MEMORY APPLICATION

Because spontaneous alteration was confirmed, studies testing spatial memory also progressed. The spatial memory aspect of the blocked T or Y-maze experiments was testing if the mice were able to remember what arm they had originally been blocked off. A + maze (plus maze) can be used so the mouse had two options instead of one when one of the arms were blocked off.[8] When the mouse spends time exploring all three arms of the maze there is a high percentage alternation, showing high working memory.[4] When the mouse spends a lot of time in only one of the arms it is suggested that the mouse doesn’t know what arms it has or hasn’t already visited. This is low percentage alternation, showing poor working memory. [4] In other words if the mouse shows good spontaneous alteration  it is linked to having good spatial memory.

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(I don’t think the radical arm maze was used to test spontaneous alteration, only used for testing spatial memory)

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IN THE BRAIN

There are areas of the brain, both in the limbic and non-limbic systems, connected to spontaneous alteration.[2] In the limbic system, associated with emotions and long-term memory, there is the hippocampus, and thalamus.[2][5] The prefrontal cortex, and vestibular system are closely associated with the limbic system.[2] [5] He also mentioned the vestibular system, dorsal stratum, and cerebellum (not associated with the limbic system).[2] [5] Studies found that legions in the brain (particularly in the hippocampus) and various drugs can significantly impair spontaneous alteration.[6] In another study done with mice, increasing the hormone estrogen showed improved spontaneous alteration performance.[7]

HUMAN INFANTS

Spontaneous alteration was tested in human infants at ages 6 months and 18 months.[9] The young children were presented two identical toys placed in different spots.[9] The six-month-old infant did not, significantly, interchange which toy it chose in subsequent trials so there was no pattern of spontaneous alternation.[9] However, the 18-month-old child did alternate between the toys, curiosity motivating them to try the toy they hadn’t chosen (the novel toy, displaying spontaneous alternation as well as spatial memory.[9] Although both ages showed inhibition of return, which is described as reacting to an object that has not been seen before faster than an object previously seen, only the 18-month-old children actually chose the novel toy.[9][10] This suggests that inhibitory control, or voluntary control over actions, is needed to (at least physically) perform spontaneous alteration.[9]

STRESS

When testing the effects of stress on spontaneous alteration in mice two different methods of stressors were involved.[11] The first was called the inescapable stressor, where the mouse could not escape the bright light being shined into the maze (open field test), and escapable where the light was shining into the maze but there were areas covered and dark for the mice to find shelter.[11] These methods caused stress because mice prefer dim areas to bright areas.[11] The inescapable stressor caused the mice’s spontaneous alteration to decrease, but the escapable stressor did not have an effect on their spontaneous alteration.[11]

References

[11] Bats, S; Thoumas, J. L; Lordi, B; Tonon, M. C; Lalonde, R; Caston, J (2001-01-08). "The effects of a mild stressor on spontaneous alternation in mice". Behavioural Brain Research. 118 (1): 11–15. doi:10.1016/S0166-4328(00)00285-0. ISSN 0166-4328.

[9] Vecera*, Sham P.; Rothbart, Mary K.; Posner, Michael I. (1991-10-01). "Development of Spontaneous Alternation in Infancy". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 3 (4): 351–354. doi:10.1162/jocn.1991.3.4.351. ISSN 0898-929X.

[7]Miller, M. M.; Hyder, S. M.; Assayag, R.; Panarella, S. R.; Tousignant, P.; Franklin, K. B. J. (1999-07-01). "Estrogen modulates spontaneous alternation and the cholinergic phenotype in the basal forebrain". Neuroscience. 91 (3): 1143–1153. doi:10.1016/S0306-4522(98)00690-3. ISSN 0306-4522.

[2] Lalonde, Robert (2002-01-01). "The neurobiological basis of spontaneous alternation". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 26 (1): 91–104. doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(01)00041-0. ISSN 0149-7634.

[5] Boeree, G. (n.d.). The Emotional Nervous System. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/limbicsystem.html

[1] Kraeuter, Ann-Katrin; Guest, Paul C.; Sarnyai, Zoltán (2019), Guest, Paul C. (ed.), "The Y-Maze for Assessment of Spatial Working and Reference Memory in Mice", Pre-Clinical Models, Springer New York, 1916, pp. 105–111, doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8994-2_10, ISBN 978-1-4939-8993-5, retrieved 2020-03-13

[3] Deacon, Robert M. J.; Rawlins, J. Nicholas P. (2006-06). "T-maze alternation in the rodent". Nature Protocols. 1 (1): 7–12. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.2. ISSN 1750-2799.

[4] Sharma, S., Rakoczy, S., & Brown-Borg, H. (2010). Assessment of spatial memory in mice. Life sciences, 87(17-18), 521–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2010.09.004

[6] Douglas, Robert J. (1989), Dember, William N.; Richman, Charles L. (eds.), "Spontaneous Alternation Behavior and the Brain", Spontaneous Alternation Behavior, Springer, pp. 73–108, doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-8879-1_5, ISBN 978-1-4613-8879-1, retrieved 2020-03-17

[12]Dember, William N.; Richman, Charles L. (2012-12-06). Spontaneous Alternation Behavior. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4613-8879-1.

[8]Lennartz, Robert C. (2008-05-01). "The role of extramaze cues in spontaneous alternation in a plus-maze". Learning & Behavior. 36 (2): 138–144. doi:10.3758/LB.36.2.138. ISSN 1532-5830.

[10] Dukewich, Kristie R.; Klein, Raymond M. (2015-07). "Inhibition of return: A phenomenon in search of a definition and a theoretical framework". Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. 77 (5): 1647–1658. doi:10.3758/s13414-015-0835-3. ISSN 1943-3921.