Investigation of the potential correlation between the cognitive performance and levels of brain fatty acids in young and aged mice

Download
2011
Yetimler, Berrak
The aim of the present study was to elucidate the possible relationship between the levels of various brain fatty acids and learning indices in aged and young mice classified as “good” or “poor” learners basing on their performance in a spatial learning task, the Morris Water Maze. The levels of several fatty acids including palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were measured using gas chromatography separately in samples from four different brain areas: hippocampus, cortex, striatum and hypothalamus. The level of oleic acid in the cerebral cortex was significantly higher in young-good learners as compared to young-poor learners and higher in young-poor learners than in old-poor learners, with no significant difference in the concentration of this acid between old-good and old-poor learners. The most consistent correlation between animals’ learning capacity and brain fatty acid’ level was found for the arachidonic acid in the hippocampal region: AA level was significantly lower in young-good learners as compared to both young-poor learners” and old-good learners” with young-good learners showing significantly better performance than the two other groups. Interestingly, except hypothalamus, no significant between-group differences were recorded for the remaining fatty acids including DHA, in none of the four brain regions examined.

Suggestions

Differential effect of age on the brain fatty acid levels and their correlation with animal cognitive status in mice
Yetimler, Berrak; Ulusoy, Gokhan; Celik, Turgay; Jakubowska-Dogru, Ewa (2012-11-01)
The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible relationship between the levels of various fatty acids (FA) in the brain and learning indices in aged (22-23 months old) and young (2-3 months old) female Swiss Webster (SW) mice. The mice were classified as "good" or "poor" learners based on their performance in a spatial learning task: the Morris Water Maze. The levels of several FA including palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidonic (AA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), were measured by g...
The cognitive bases of the development of past and future episodic cognition in preschoolers
ÜNAL, GÜLTEN; Hohenberger, Annette Edeltraud (2017-10-01)
The aim of this study was to use a minimalist framework to examine the joint development of past and future episodic cognition and their underlying cognitive abilities in 3- to 5-year-old Turkish preschoolers. Participants engaged in two main tasks, a what-where-when (www) task to measure episodic memory and a future prediction task to measure episodic future thinking. Three additional tasks were used for predicting children's performance in the two main tasks: a temporal language task, an executive functio...
Study on the molecular basis of individual variation in spatial memory in rats
Gökçek Saraç, Çiğdem; Jakubowska Doğru, Ewa; Adalı, Orhan; Department of Biology (2012)
Despite very extensive studies related to molecular processes underlying memory formation, still little known about the potential differences in the brain biochemistry between “good” and “poor” learners belonging to a random population of young animals. In the present study, an attempt was taken to correlate the individual variation in short- and long-term spatial memory in three different lines of young, healthy rats: inbred Wistar (W), outcrossed Wistar/Spraque Dawley (W/S) and pigmented Long-Evans rats, ...
Individual variation in the spatial reference and working memory assessed under allothetic and idiothetic orientation cues in rat
Jakubowska-Dogru, E; Gumusbas, U; Kara, F (2003-01-01)
The present study was designed to examine which kind of memory: reference or working, better correlates with individual variation in rats' spatial learning abilities. To answer this question two groups of rats were trained to an arbitrary criterion in a partially baited 12-arm radial maze under two different experimental conditions: with or without allothetic cues. After 10 days break, rats were examined under the same conditions for memory retention. Within- and between-group variation in the length of tra...
Analyzing Complex Problem Solving by Dynamic Brain Networks
Alchihabi, Abdullah; Ekmekci, Ömer; Kivilcim, Baran B.; Newman, Sharlene D.; Yarman Vural, Fatos T. (2021-12-01)
Complex problem solving is a high level cognitive task of the human brain, which has been studied over the last decade. Tower of London (TOL) is a game that has been widely used to study complex problem solving. In this paper, we aim to explore the underlying cognitive network structure among anatomical regions of complex problem solving and its subtasks, namely planning and execution. A new computational model for estimating a brain network at each time instant of fMRI recordings is proposed. The suggested...
Citation Formats
B. Yetimler, “Investigation of the potential correlation between the cognitive performance and levels of brain fatty acids in young and aged mice,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2011.