It was found that the F2 mice outperformed either of the parental strains and provide a control sample with good baseline performance in the Morris water maze (MWM). Reliable deficits could be obtained in learning and memory in this paradigm following injections with scopolamine (0.16 mg/kg) in the F2 mice, which can potentially be used to test effects of reference and novel compounds in order to develop cognitive enhancing drugs. Furthermore, it was shown that the four genotypes showed normal latent inhibition (LI) using the conditioned taste aversion (CTA) paradigm and exhibited no differences in prepulse inhibition (PPI) levels.
Following the setup of these procedures in mice, we are now able to compare the effects of gene knockout/mutations used for target validation with results in the present study as a frame of reference.