ABSTRACT
The inhibitory component of selective attention has been compared in young (7-8 weeks) and older (9-10 months) female mice using the latent inhibition (LI) paradigm. LI consists of retardation in conditioning to a stimulus as a consequence of its prior non-reinforced pre-exposure. In the present work, active avoidance of an electric footshock signaled with a sound was used. Avoidances of the electric footshocks were significantly reduced in old relative to young mice which did not differ regarding pain threshold. This likely results from a slower learning in old mice. LI was significantly present and of the same importance in both young (46%) and old (49%) mice. These results suggest that in 8-9 months-old mice, the learning ability is reduced but the inhibitory component of selective attention is not altered.
