Morris Water Maze Task

The Morris Water Maze is a very popular task in behavioral neuroscience.  In its most basic form, the water maze assesses spatial learning and memory.  Performance in the Morris Water Maze is acutely sensitive to manipulations of the hippocampus.

Procedure

Subjects are placed in a circular pool of warm, opaque water in a random start location.  An escape platform is hidden just under the surface of the water.  During training trials, latency to find the platform location is recorded.  During probe trials, the platform is removed, and the percentage of time spent in the quadrant that normally contains the platform is compared to the time spent in other quadrants.

Water Maze Behavior