Win-Stay Radial Maze Task
Objective: To examine the hypothesis that the mammalian brain contains anatomically distinct memory systems by testing rats on a win-stay radial maze task where rats must revisit 4 randomly selected baited arms signaled by lights, requiring reinforcement-based arm revisitation within a trial.
This is a Win-Stay Radial Maze Task protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 4 procedural steps, 2 equipment items, 1 materials. Extracted from a 1989 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
Estimated timing pending
Core workflow
Surgical lesion placement • Maze setup and arm baiting • Trial execution
Primary readouts
- Choice accuracy (number of correct arm revisits)
- Errors or incorrect choices during the task
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
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- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
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Protocol Steps
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Surgical lesion placement
Rats received bilateral lesions of either caudate nucleus or fimbria-fornix, with a separate control group receiving no lesions
Note: Testing occurred postoperatively
View evidence from paper
“Rats with bilateral lesions of caudate nucleus or fimbria-fornix and a control group were tested postoperatively”
Maze setup and arm baiting
4 arms of the 8-arm radial maze are randomly selected and baited with food reinforcement for each trial
Note: The location of baited arms is signaled by lights at arm entrances
View evidence from paper
“the location of 4 randomly selected baited arms was signaled by a light at the entrance to each arm”
Trial execution
Rats are placed in the maze and must revisit the arms in which reinforcement had been previously acquired within the same trial
Note: This is a win-stay task requiring reinforcement-based arm revisitation
View evidence from paper
“which required rats to revisit arms in which reinforcement had been previously acquired within a trial”
Performance measurement
Record choice accuracy during the task
Note: Choice accuracy is the primary outcome measure
View evidence from paper
“Rats with fimbria-fornix lesions were superior to controls in choice accuracy on the win-stay radial maze task”