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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurobiol Dis. 2009 Apr 15;35(1):3–13. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2009.04.002

Figure 1. Effects of maternal and offspring diet on cognitive performance in Morris water maze.

Figure 1

Male rats were segregated into 4 groups: CD/CD (rats from CD dams given CD), CD/HFD (rats from CD dams given HFD), HFD/CD (rats from HFD dams given CD), and HFD/HFD (rats from HFD dams given HFD) groups, and the effects of maternal and offspring diet on visuo-spatial learning in 20-week old animals (n = 9-10 per group) was evaluated using the Morris water maze as described in Methods. (A) Mean latency to reach the hidden platform across was measured, and data were analyzed by ANOVA as described in Methods. There was no effect of Maternal Diet or Offspring Diet during acquisition. However, planned comparisons of retention indices (Mean Difference) based on differences in performance between training days as described in Methods indicated that the HFD/HFD group exhibited a significant (p < 0.05) retention deficit compared to the CD/CD group (see graph insert). (B) Mean distance traveled to reach the hidden platform was measured, and data were analyzed by ANOVA. There was no effect of Maternal Diet or Offspring Diet during acquisition. However, planned comparisons of retention indices (Mean Difference) indicated that the HFD/HFD group exhibited a significant (p < 0.05) retention deficit compared to the CD/CD group (see graph insert). (C) Percentage of time spent searching in each quadrant during a 60 sec probe trial was measured, and statistical analyses did not reveal any difference in quadrant preference between the 4 groups.