SPATIAL NAVIGATION OF STAGGERER AND NORMAL MICE DURING JUVENILE AND ADULT STAGES

Staggerer mutant mice were compared to normal mice of two different ag es (2-6 mo) in two tasks requiring navigational skills in a circular m aze visible platform condition and a T-maze. Staggerer mutants had hig her latencies than normal mice in both tests. The performance of norma l mice worsened with age for both tests. The aging factor interacted w ith the genotype factor only in the circular maze, where the mutant-no nmutant differential was wider among juvenile animals. In neither task was there evidence of a more pronounced impairment with aging in stag gerer mutants. It remains to be determined in this mutant at more adva nced stages of aging or in other models of chronic neural disease whet her early neuropathology accelerates brain aging.