Hippocampus
Are there sex differences in learning and memory?
It is thought that performance on other more complex tasks, such as radial arm maze or the Morris water maze, may be less influenced by sex differences in activity.
- Maze tasks are considered tests of spatial abilities in rodents because animals solve these maze tasks by using cues from the surroundings outside of the maze.
- The hippocampus (in rats) is thought to be essential for solving tasks that require the animal to use its spatial abilities.
There is evidence that males tend to perform better on spatial tasks than females.
- This sex difference in seen in some species but not all.
- This difference is also somewhat limited--greatest sex differences are observed during acquisition of the task, and often fewer differences are seen once the task has been learned.
- It has been suggested that males and females used different cues to solve spatial tasks (which may underlie differences in acquisition), and there is evidence to suggest that exposure to gonadal steroids during development and in the adult can alter what cues are used to solve a given task.