Can someone please explain why it's so common in the literature using the Barnes Maze to have a 15-minute intertrial interval? Protocols for other methods of measuring spatial memory have significantly lower ITIs but for most of the Barnes literature, 15-minute ITIs are always common.
I'm just wondering if I could run Barnes Maze with mice (40 hole set up) and use a shorter ITI and it still be ok in terms of publishing?
Hi Stephen,
We usually run Barnes maze with mice (20 hole set up) (Basaure et al., 2016; Peris-Sampedro et al., 2015). Note that the number of holes will depend on the diameter of the maze you use. During the training period, our mice are subjected to a daily session of two trials (180 s/trial) with an inter-trial interval (ITI) of 60 min for 5 consecutive days. We typically evaluate retention of the task by a probe trial performed 24 h after the last training session, consisting of a 120-s free exploration session without the escape box. Several authors have inquired about the effects of the training duration and/or the ITI length on acquiring hippocampus-dependent taks. The less massive learning (i.e., longer ITI), the better scores you will obtain from the retention analysis.
I hope I've been helpful,
Fiona
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