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Testing declarative memory in laboratory rats and mice using the nonconditioned social discrimination procedure

Nature Protocols volume 6, pages 1152–1162 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Testing declarative memory in laboratory rodents can provide insights into the fundamental mechanisms underlying this type of learning and memory processing, and these insights are likely to be applicable to humans. Here we provide a detailed description of the social discrimination procedure used to investigate recognition memory in rats and mice, as established during the last 20 years in our laboratory. The test is based on the use of olfactory signals for social communication in rodents; this involves a direct encounter between conspecifics, during which the investigatory behavior of the experimental subject serves as an index for learning and memory performance. The procedure is inexpensive, fast and very reliable, but it requires well-trained human observers. We include recent modifications to the procedure that allow memory extinction to be investigated by retroactive and proactive interference, and that enable the dissociated analysis of the central nervous processing of the volatile fraction of an individual's olfactory signature. Depending on the memory retention interval under study (short-term memory, intermediate-term memory, long-term memory or long-lasting memory), the protocol takes ∼10 min or up to several days to complete.

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Figure 1: Overview of the social discrimination test.
Figure 2: Impact of the gender of stimulus juveniles on the recognition performance of the experimental subjects.
Figure 3: Impact of manipulating the experimental subjects on their recognition performance.
Figure 4: Equipment setup.
Figure 5: The volatile fraction cage.
Figure 6: Schematic diagram showing the sequence of juvenile placement into the experimental subjects' cages during 'sampling' and 'choice'.
Figure 7: Representative examples showing anticipated results obtained in the social discrimination procedure.
Figure 8: Relevant behavioral parameters.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Murau and M. Radscheidt for expert support in behavioral testing. We also thank G. Leng, Edinburgh, for polishing the English. During the writing of this paper, the authors were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EN 366/6-1 and EN 366/8-1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Biochemie und Zellbiologie, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg, Germany

    Mario Engelmann & Jana Hädicke

  2. Zentrum für zelluläre Bildgebung und innovative Krankheitsmodelle, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg, Germany

    Julia Noack

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  1. Mario Engelmann
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Contributions

M.E. and J.N. designed the study, J.H. performed some of the behavioral experiments, and M.E. and J.N. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mario Engelmann.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

No impact of female sex cycle on long-term social discrimination. The same group-housed female mice were tested for their social recognition abilities under estrous and non-estrous conditions at an retention interval of 24 h. The stage of the cycle was determined using microscopical analysis of vaginal smears taken ∼ 1 h after choice. Statistical analysis shows that experimental subjects successfully discriminated between the stimulus animals independently upon cyclus stage during choice. Statistics was performed using paired t-test. (JPG 329 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Social discrimination is sensitive to interference phenomena. Examples showing schematically the experimental design (insets) and representative results obtained with same group-housed adult male mice as experimental subjects without (A) and with experimental induction of interference (B,C) for long-term social recognition memory. A, demonstrates intact recognition memory performance of these animals in the standard social discrimination protocol. B, Presentation of an interference juvenile (hatched) during the retention interval of 24h (6h after sampling) impairs recognition of the familiar juvenile. C, Presentation of an interference juvenile (hatched) 3h before sampling impairs recognition of the familiar juvenile at the retention interval of 21 h. Statistics was performed using paired t-test. Please note that the effect of interference is time-dependent. (JPG 533 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Stimulus animal labelling. Schematic drawing showing the relative position and length of the marks used for labelling at the dorsal side of a juvenile. (JPG 165 kb)

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Engelmann, M., Hädicke, J. & Noack, J. Testing declarative memory in laboratory rats and mice using the nonconditioned social discrimination procedure. Nat Protoc 6, 1152–1162 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2011.353

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