The computer-controlled automatic
shuttle box (TSE, Bad Homburg, Germany) was located in a sound-attenuating enclosure ventilated by an extractor fan.
The passive avoidance task was performed using the shuttle box to study the learning memory status in rats.
The spatial and learning memories in rats were investigated using the Y-maze and shuttle box apparatus to compare their score changes in accordance with the protective role allocated to CA against A[beta] toxicity.
If the animal avoided the unconditioned stimulus by running into the dark compartment within 5 s of the onset of the CS, the shuttle box recorded an avoidance response.
As a direct results of the prenatal brain oxidative stress and the decrease of glutathione in pups, findings of the learning test in shuttle box showed that a significant impairment of active avoidance learning was clearly observed in pups born to LPS-treated mothers.
The apparatus used for training rats in order to assess their short-term and long-term memory was the
shuttle box [12].
During the acquisition tests in sessions 1-4 and the extinction test, we recorded the percentage of correct avoidance responses, in which the animals moved to the other compartment of the
shuttle box within a 5-sec CS in each block of 25 trials.
Recently, Balleine and Job (1991) have reported evidence suggesting that manipulations of activity, or more precisely inactivity, during training can also affect performance during a
shuttle box escape test.