Figure 5.

Over-expression of mutant tau impairs memory and sensori-motor gating in an age dependent fashion (a) Schedule of contextual fear conditioning testing (US=unconditioned stimulus; memory tested at 1h, 24h and 7d delay). (b) Aged Tg mice (age 12–13 months) showed impaired short-term (STM, 1 h) (WT=11 mice, Tg=12 mice, t₂₁=4.522, ***P=0.0002) and long-term memory (LTM, 24h: t₂₁=3.424, **P=0.0026; 7d: t₂₁=4.283, ***P=0.0003) when compared to WT mice. Young Tg mice (5–6 months) showed normal memory when compared to age-matched WT controls (right panel) (WT=9 mice, Tg=10 mice, t₁₇=0.2793, P=0.7834). (c) Sensori-motor gating was impaired in aged Tg mice (WT=17 mice, Tg=8 mice; 72dB: t₂₃=0.2.130, *P=0.0441; 82dB: t₂₃=2.532, *P=0.0186, 90dB: t₂₃=3.040, **P=0.0058). (d) Young Tg mice had normal sensorigating when compared to young WT controls (WT=11 mice, Tg=11 mice; 72dB: t₂₀=0.9115, P=0.3729; 82dB: t₂₀=0.3533, P=0.7276, 90dB: t₂₀=0.1095, P=0.9139). Data are presented as mean ± SEM.; n.s. not significant.