Four-arm radial open maze (FAROM) as a tool for assessing the effect of atropine in spatial memory of the rats.

Place learning behaviour for working (short term) memory and reference (long term) memory is studied with the Four-arm radial open maze (FAROM) in 18 rats divided equally in three groups. In group I, 0.5 mg of atropine was injected intra-peritoneally 30 minutes before the trial. In group II, saline and in group III Glycopyrrolate were injected instead. Twenty three hours hungry animals were tested on each day in the maze to search for food kept in one of the eight cul-de-sacs of maze. The latency i.e. the time to reach the goal cul-de-sacs, as well as the error score i.e. the number of entries in the non-goal cul-de-sacs were counted during six consecutive trials, per day. Each trial duration was 5 minutes or the time taken by the animal to search the goal compartment whichever was less. The inter-trials period was 10 min and the work was carried out for a period of 3 weeks. The results show that atropine does block effectively both the memory faculties i.e. working and reference memory and that level of memory deficit induced by atropine is related to the rate of drug uptake by the central cholinergic receptors.