Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals Essay

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The article Cognitive Aging: A Common Decline of Episodic Recollection and Spatial Memory in Rats by Robitsek et al. reveals the experiment of comparison of “performance in recognition” with “odor recognition memory in young and aged rats” in “water maze learning” (Robitsek et al. 8945). The article highlights the comprehensive information concerning the experiment which was implemented methodically and thoroughly. As far as the results of the experiment are concerned the article presents detailed information on the outcome which proves the impairment in the recollection and “relative sparing” of familiarity of aged rats (Robitsek et al. 8945). It is also remarkable that a part of aged rats showed the same results as the young ones, which also proves the correlation between spatial memory in rats (and in humans as well) and changes in the hippocampus.

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But it is necessary to further develop the research in the recollection capacity in rats. The next experiment can be held with the young rats and those aged rats which showed the same results. It is possible to use ten armed mazes and to make the rats hide some fruit, for instance. Thus, the rats are posed into the center of the maze with the fruit, and after they hide their food they are taken away. It will be interesting to observe whether all the rats will find the hidden (by them) food at the same time, or the aged rats will need more time for such kind of task. Another significant point of this experiment will be the repetition of the same task, and whether the rats will hide food in the same place of the maze or they will change the place, and how much time will it take for them to find food in the old / new place. The results of this experiment will likely be as follows: aged rats will need more time to find the food, and will not put the food in the same arm of the maze, and the young rats, on the contrary, will need less time, and will likely to put the food in the same place. There can be an interesting continuation of this experiment: while at first rats will find their food in the place they put it, now the food will be taken away. And it is interesting whether the rats will put it in the same place or intently will hide it in another arm of the maze. And again it is possible to observe time duration: how much time the rats will need, first of all to hide the food, then for how long they will look for it. The results of this experiment will be, most probably, as follows: young rats will put the food in different places and will find it quite easily, but as far as the aged rats are concerned there are more variants. The aged rats can act just like the young ones, but the former will need more time for this, or the aged rats can put the food in the same place without finding it. These experiments will shed more light on the correlation between recollection and aging in rats. But, of course, it is only an assumption, and to prove this point of view it is necessary to implement the experiments mentioned above.

Works Cited

Robitsek, R.J., N.J. Fortin, M.T. Koh, M. Gallagher and H. Eichenbaum. “Cognitive aging: A common decline of episodic recollection and spatial memory in rats.” Journal of Neuroscience. 2008: 28: 8945-8954.

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IvyPanda. (2021, December 18). Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-aging-in-humans-and-animals/

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals'. 18 December.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals." December 18, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-aging-in-humans-and-animals/.

1. IvyPanda. "Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals." December 18, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-aging-in-humans-and-animals/.


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IvyPanda. "Cognitive Aging in Humans and Animals." December 18, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-aging-in-humans-and-animals/.

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