Spontaneous alternation

Spontaneous alternation is a behavioral test which tests spatial learning and memory. This maze task has been extensively used in many laboratories associated with cognition. Spontaneous alternation maze can have the shape of a Y, T, or + sign. The radial arm maze is similar but is much more complicated and a harder task because of the many arms. The rat is placed in the middle of the maze and is allowed to move freely through each arm. The purpose of the test is for the rat or mouse to remember which maze arm was last visited and try to enter as many different arms as possible. The task is testing hippocampal memory and can be weakened by lesions to the hippocampus. The sequence of arm entries and total amount of arm entries are scored and a percentage is calculated. The cognition of the animal can be assessed based on the score where a lower score is considered cognitively impaired. Chance is determined by the number of arms the maze has, in a three-arm maze it is 22%, in a four-arm or plus maze it is around 9%.

*Psychology 101-01:Spontaneous alternation is the tendency to choose a different option than one previously chosen. The T Maze uses rats to test this spontaneous alternation. It has been found that infants also use spontaneous alternation when choosing toys to play with.^[1]

References

Dember W N. In: Spontaneous Alternation Behavior. Richman C L, editor. New York: Springer; 1989