Figure 5
Katanin p60 haploinsufficiency does not alter hippocampal-dependent spatial and contextual memory. (A) Schematic representation of the spatial Y-maze procedure used to examine the capacity to employ allocentric strategies to explore a previously inaccessible location. (B) Equivalent time spent in both arms during the acquisition phase indicates that motivation to explore is unaltered in heterozygous (+/−) mice. (C,D) In the test phase, both genotype groups showed biased exploration of the previously unfamiliar spatial location. #p < 0.05 based on a one-sample t-test against chance level (dashed line) preference (33.3%) for the novel location. (E) Scheme of experiment protocol used to examine discrimination between two distinct contexts in a fear conditioning paradigm. (F) Both genotype groups showed significantly more freezing responses to the shock-paired context compared with the safe context (Context: ***p < 0.0001), +/− mice showed delayed capacity to form context-shock association (Context × Genotype: p = 0.038) during the training phase. (G) A 24-h retention test revealed significantly higher freezing responses to the shock context compared with the safe context for both genotype groups (Context: **p < 0.01). (H) Comparable context discrimination index between the two genotype groups indicated intact context discrimination and memory consolidation in heterozygous (+/−) mice. Values represent mean ± SEM.
