Hippocampus
Study by Warren & Juraska (1997)
Question: Does performance on spatial tasks by females vary with their estrus cycle?
Methods:
- several groups of animals were studied, but they focused primarily on females during 2 stages of the estrus cycle in 2 forms of the Morris water maze
- 2 main groups of females: females in late proestrus (elevated estrogen levels) versus females in late estrus (estrogen levels are low)
- Morris water maze requires that an animal learn to find a platform submerged under water (water is murky--not a visual task)
- place form of maze--females had to use spatial cues surrounding the maze to find platform (spatial task)
- cued form of maze--a black ball was suspended above the platform, so females had to learn to find platform by going toward black ball (cued task)