Hebb–Williams maze

The Hebb–Williams maze is a maze used in comparative psychology to assess the cognitive ability of small animals such as mice and rats. It was developed by Donald O. Hebb and his student Kenneth Williams in 1946, when both men were working at Queen's University at Kingston.[1][2] A modified version, intended specifically to measure the intelligence of rats, was described in a 1951 paper by Hebb's students Rabinovitch and Rosvold.[3][4] This modified version is the most commonly used in research where the aim is to measure animals' problem-solving abilities.[5] In general, animals are tested in the Hebb–Williams maze's twelve separate mazes after acclimating to six practice mazes,[6] though some studies have not used all twelve testing mazes.[7] The two main procedures for the maze are the reward conditioning task and the water escape task.[8] The maze has been used to investigate strain and sex differences in mice.[9] A 2018 study argued that the maze is potentially useful for translational research in fragile X syndrome in humans.[10]

References

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  1. ^ Hebb, D. O.; Williams, Kenneth (January 1946). "A Method of Rating Animal Intelligence". The Journal of General Psychology. 34 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1080/00221309.1946.10544520. PMID 21015350.
  2. ^ Brown, Richard E. (December 2020). "Donald O. Hebb and the Organization of Behavior: 17 years in the writing". Molecular Brain. 13 (1): 55. doi:10.1186/s13041-020-00567-8. PMC 7137474. PMID 32252813.
  3. ^ Rabinovitch, M. S.; Rosvold, H. Enger (1951). "A closed-field intelligence test for rats". Canadian Journal of Psychology. 5 (3): 122–128. doi:10.1037/h0083542. PMID 14870071.
  4. ^ Brown, Richard E. (2016-12-15). "Hebb and Cattell: The Genesis of the Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 10: 606. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2016.00606. PMC 5156710. PMID 28018191.
  5. ^ Meyers, Barton (1971). "Early experience and problem solving behavior". In Moltz, Howard (ed.). The Ontogeny of Vertebrate Behavior. Academic Press. p. 59. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-504350-2.50008-4. ISBN 9780125043502.
  6. ^ Stanford, Lianne; Brown, Richard E. (September 2003). "MHC-congenic mice (C57BL/6J and B6-H-2K) show differences in speed but not accuracy in learning the Hebb–Williams Maze". Behavioural Brain Research. 144 (1–2): 187–197. doi:10.1016/S0166-4328(03)00093-7. PMID 12946609. S2CID 24020173.
  7. ^ Kobayashi, Satoru; Ohashi, Yasushi; Ando, Susumu (2002-11-01). "Effects of enriched environments with different durations and starting times on learning capacity during aging in rats assessed by a refined procedure of the Hebb-Williams maze task". Journal of Neuroscience Research. 70 (3): 340–346. doi:10.1002/jnr.10442. PMID 12391594.
  8. ^ Fertan, Emre; Wong, Aimée A.; Vienneau, Nicole A.; Brown, Richard E. (September 2019). "Age and sex differences in motivation and spatial working memory in 3xTg-AD mice in the Hebb–Williams maze". Behavioural Brain Research. 370: 111937. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2019.111937. PMID 31121220. S2CID 159040091.
  9. ^ O'Leary, Timothy P.; Brown, Richard E. (2013). "Chapter 30: Other mazes". In Crusio, Wim E.; Sluyter, Frans; Gerlai, Robert T.; Pietropaolo, Susanna (eds.). Behavioral Genetics of The Mouse. Volume 1, Genetics of Behavioral Phenotypes. Cambridge Handbooks in Behavioral Genetics. Cambridge. pp. 304–314. ISBN 978-1-107-03481-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Boutet, Isabelle; Collin, Charles A.; MacLeod, Lindsey S.; Messier, Claude; Holahan, Matthew R.; Berry-Kravis, Elizabeth; Gandhi, Reno M.; Kogan, Cary S. (2018-03-28). "Utility of the Hebb–Williams Maze Paradigm for Translational Research in Fragile X Syndrome: A Direct Comparison of Mice and Humans". Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience. 11: 99. doi:10.3389/fnmol.2018.00099. PMC 5882825. PMID 29643767.