Figure 2

Performance in the Morris water maze test between sham and stimulated animals. (A) Time to find the platform (in seconds) in the Morris water maze during training days. No differences were observed at week 9 (a1) and week 27 (a2) (mean ± SD). (B) Analysis of swimming strategy in the Morris water maze on the test day using RODA software. The stimulated group (SE, n = 15) exhibited a decrease in the number of sections where they exhibited incursion (IC) and scanning (SC) strategies at weeks 9 and 27 of the experiment compared with sham animals (n = 12) (b1, b2). *p < 0.05. The focused search (FS) strategy increased at week 9, and thigmotaxis (TT) increased at week 27 in stimulated animals (SE, n = 15) compared with sham animals (n = 12). *p < 0.05 (mean ± SEM). (C) Comparison of scanning and incursion strategies in the Morris water maze. A lower proportion of scanning (SC) to incursion (IC) was observed in stimulated rats (SE, n = 15) compared with the sham group (n = 12) on the test day at week 9. *p < 0.05 (c1, c2). No differences were observed at week 27 (c3-c4) (mean ± SD).