Rat cNOR-OL Experiment and Holding Chamber

NC3Rs article on the Continual Trials apparatus.

• The NC3Rs recognizes the Continual Trials apparatus meets goals of number of animal use reduction and refinement by reducing the necessary handling. For more information about the goals of the NC3Rs and the 3Rs, visit the NC3Rs website.

Object-Place-Context (OPC) - Measure of Episodic memory

• There is also an option to have changeable floors in the cNOR-OL chamber. This adds an extra context, so the mice have to remember the object, the place they last saw it and on what context floor it was on. This is a measure of episodic memory. The Easton Lab have further investigated rat strategy in doing the test - Read More

Key Publications

• Ennaceur & Delacour 1988 (Object preference)
• Ennaceur & Meliani 1992 (Memory for location)
• Ennaceur & Aggleton 1997 (Prh lesions in spatial and NOR)
• Dix & Aggleton 1999 (Object-location)
• Dix & Aggleton 1999 (Object-context)
• Easton, Eacott, Zinkivskay 2005; Eacott & Norman 2004 (Combinations, Episodic memory)
• Eacott & Gaffan 2005; Easton & Eacott 2010 (Variety of different memories, dissociation of underlying mechanisms)
• Varghese, Brett, Harland, Van-Nobelen & John Dalrymple-Alford, 2009 Episodic memory, odour context
• Davies, Easton, Eacott, Gigg 2013 Episodic memory for WWW & Episodic memory & Alzheimer's-like pathology

Continual Trials NOR & OL

• Ameen-Ali, Easton & Eacott 2012 (rats)
• Ameen-Ali et al 2015 (improved reliability & interpretation)
• Seel, Eacott, Langston & Easton 2017 (rats)

Recent Continual Trials Papers

• Ross, T. W. & Easton, A. (2022). Rats use strategies to make object choices in spontaneous object recognition tasks. Scientific Reports, 12, Article 16973. - Read More
• Ameen-Ali, K. E., Sivakumaran, M. H., Eacott, M. J., O’Connor, A. R., Ainge, J. A., & Easton, A. (2021). Perirhinal cortex and the recognition of relative familiarity. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 182, 107439.  -Read More
• Landreth, K., Simanaviciute, U., Fletcher, J., Grayson, B., Grant, R. A., Harte, M. H., & Gigg, J. (2021). Dissociating the effects of distraction and proactive interference on object memory through tests of novelty preference. Brain and Neuroscience Advances, 5, 1–11. - Read More
• Chan, M., Austen, J. M., Eacott, M. J., Easton, A., & Sanderson, D. J. (2019). The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 fails to impair long-term recognition memory in mice when the state-dependency of memory is controlled. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 161, 57–62. - Read More
• Seel, S. V., Eacott, M. J., & Langston, R. F. (2018). Cholinergic input to the hippocampus is not required for a model of episodic memory in the rat, even with multiple consecutive events. Behavioural Brain Research, 354, 48–54. - Read More
• Chan, M., Eacott, M. J., Sanderson, D. J., Wang, S., Sun, H., & Easton, A. (2018). Continual Trials Spontaneous Recognition Tasks in Mice: Reducing animal numbers and improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying memory. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 214. - Read More

Related papers on Recognition and Episodic Memory

• Pereda, D., Al-Osta, I., Okorocha, A.E., Easton, A. & Hartell, N.A. (2019). Changes in presynaptic calcium signalling accompany age-related deficits in hippocampal LTP and cognitive impairment. Aging Cell 18(5): e13008. - Abstract
• Incidental context information increases recollection. Learning & Memory 24(3): 136-139. - Abstract
• Ameen-Ali, K.E., Easton, A. & Eacott, M.J. (2015). Moving beyond standard procedures to assess spontaneous recognition memory. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 53: 37-51. - Abstract
• Robertson, B-A., Eacott, M.J. & Easton, A. (2015). Putting Memory in Context: Dissociating memories by distinguishing the nature of context. Behavioural Brain Research 285: 99-104. - Abstract
• Davis, KE, Easton, A., Eacott, MJ & Gigg, J (2013). Episodic-Like Memory for What-Where-Which Occasion is Selectively Impaired in the 3xTgAD Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 33(3): 681-698. - Abstract
• Davis, K.E., Eacott, M.J., Easton, A & Gigg, J. (2013). Episodic-like memory is sensitive to both Alzheimer's-like pathological accumulation and normal ageing processes in mice. Behavioural Brain Research 254: 73-82. - Abstract
• Ameen-Ali,K.E., Eacott,M.J. & Easton,A. (2012). A new behavioural apparatus to reduce animal numbers in multiple types of spontaneous object recognition paradigms in rats. Journal of neuroscience methods 211(1): 66-76. - Abstract
• Easton, A & Eacott, MJ (2012). Cholinergic mechanisms of episodic memory: what specific behavioural tasks can tell us about specific neural mechanisms. Brain Research Bulletin. - Abstract
• Easton, A, Webster, LAD & Eacott, MJ (2012). The episodic nature of episodic-like memories. Learning & Memory 19(4): 146-150. - Abstract
• Easton, A., Child, S. & Lopez-Crespo, G. (2011). Differential outcomes aid the formation of categorical relationships between stimuli. Behavioural Brain Research 222(1): 270-273. - Abstract
• Easton, A., Fitchett, A., Eacott, M.J. & Baxter, M.G. (2011). Medial septal cholinergic neurons are necessary for context-place memory but not episodic-like memory. Hippocampus 21(9): 1021-1027. - Abstract
• Eacott, MJ & Easton, A (2010). Episodic memory in animals: Remembering which occasion. Neuropsychologia 48(8): 2273-2280. - Abstract