Aprender a encontrar a plataforma

Aprendizagem

At first the rat will swim around the side. After a while it understands there is no way out by doing that. Then it searches more to the center. If it does not find the platform after approximately two minutes, lift it out & dry it. If it really does not get the point, you can gently guide it to the platform. It gets on the platform & usually rears and looks around. This is something else to learn, that there is an escape platform. You can leave it for ~ 15 seconds, to orientate. It is looking into the room.
There must be visual cues on the room walls. It needs at least 3 different cues, e.g. 3 different posters, (so it can 'triangulate'), always visible from inside the pool. These cues should be extra-maze i.e. well outside of the pool. If they are close to the poolside, then the rat could be doing association between the cue & the platform. After some training swims, the rat will go direct to the platform. After ~15 seconds you lift it off the platform and gently dry it (better - put it in a litter of tissues, so it can dry itself). Rats can do several swims per day. Now you can use a different start-point. An informed rat does not try to back-track to the old start point. It goes direct to the platform. Because it has a spatial map in its hippocampus? The training sequence and test sequence are something that you as the scientist have to decide on. Obviously you are going to use Controls and Experimental rats.

Texto original (em inglês): watermaze.org Part I, General Information. A partir de material original de Richard Baker. Reproduzido sem alterações. Copyright Richard Baker© 2013. All Rights Reserved.