Figure 1.

Water maze performance and motor behavior in mice treated with saline (CON) or AICAR (ACR3, 500 mg/kg) for 3 d. Mice were trained for 7 d with four trials per day in the Morris water maze, 2 wk after injections. (A) ACR3 mice had a trend of shorter latency to the platform over training days than CON mice (P = 0.08). (B) Only the ACR3 mice showed a significant preference for the target zone as compared to all other quadrants of the pool in the 4-h probe trial (*P < 0.006). (C–E) To assess motor behavior mice were tested in the open field and rotarod. (C) Distance traveled in the open field showed a modest trend toward reduction for ACR injected mice. (D) Latency to the first fall in the rotarod did not differ between the groups. (E) In the rotarod the ACR3 group had significantly less total falls (*P < 0.015). Error bars indicate SEM.