Figure 3. Chronic rapamycin treatment resulted in aging-independent improvements of learning and memory.

Learning and memory was examined in our aging cohorts using an object place recognition paradigm (A), the Morris water maze (B–D) and a context fear conditioning paradigm (E) (11-month vehicle, n = 20; 20-month vehicle, n = 16; 11-month rapamycin, n = 20; 20-month rapamycin, n = 19). (A) Exploration times of the objects in the novel and familiar location, respectively, during the test of the object place recognition task. (B) Escape latencies during training on a hidden version of the Morris water maze task. (C) Quadrant occupancy and (D) target crossing measures during the probe trial given after completion of training in the Morris water maze. TQ, target quadrant; OQ, other quadrants. (E) Activity suppression ratios during a context test given 1 day after associative training in a context fear conditioning paradigm. (F–H) To test for aging-independent effects of rapamycin on learning and memory, we assessed young mice chronically treated with rapamycin or vehicle (n = 15 per group) in the Morris water maze. (F) Escape latencies during training. (G) Quadrant occupancy and (H) target crossings during a probe trial delivered after completion of training. All graphs show mean ± SEM.