Behavioral disturbances in transgenic mice overexpressing the V717F beta-amyloid precursor protein

PDAPP transgenic mice have been shown to develop age dependently much of th e cerebral histopathology associated with Alzheimer's disease. PDAPP mice ( 3-10 months old) were tested in a battery of memory tasks to determine whet her they develop memory-behavioral deficits and whether these deficits occu r before or after amyloid deposition. PDAPP mice manifest robust impairment s in a radial-maze spatial discrimination task at all ages tested. Mild def icits were observed in a barpress learning task in S-month-old PDAPP mice. In contrast, PDAPP mice show an age-dependent decrease in spontaneous objec t-recognition performance that appears to be severe at ages when amyloid de position is known to occur. Thus, the PDAPP mouse shows severe deficits in the radial maze well before amyloid plaque deposition, whereas object-recog nition performance decreases with age and may be associated with amyloid de position.