Figure 8

Working memory impairment in HIV-1 Tg rats. Working memory was significantly impaired in adult (4–5 months old) HIV-1 Tg rats compared to wild-type controls (CONT) using the spontaneous alternation behavior in the T-Maze, a paradigm sensitive to prefrontal cortex and hippocampal impairments. A) HIV-1 Tg rats exhibited a marked decrease of spontaneous alternation behavior (SAB), a measure of working memory, compared to control rats (n = 7 for both groups; t10 = 4.2, p < 0.01). Only the control rats alternated significantly above chance (t6 = 7.1, p < 0.001) whereas HIV-1 Tg rats were not significantly different from chance level (t4 = 1.2, p = ns). There was no difference between the two groups in the latency to leave the start box or the latency to make a choice (B). ***p < 0.001 vs. chance; p < 0.01 vs. HIV-1 Tg rats.