The 20th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

Gender Differences in Time-Dependent Spatial Learning in Octodon degus
Poster Session-Science Complex Atrium, 4:00 PM

Megan  Roberts,   '10 87
   Majors: Psychology, Biology
   Hometown: Roseville, MI

Sponsor(s): Tammy Jechura
Support: FURSCA

Abstract: 
O. degus are diurnal rodents endemic to the Western slopes of the Andes Mountain range in South America. They live in a burrowing community with few males in the predominantly female social system. The radial arm maze is a spatial task consisting of a central chamber and six radial arms leading from it. The degus were trained to find food rewards with two different patterns of location at two different times of day so they had to use their internal clocks, or circadian rhythms, to determine the correct arms at that particular time of day. Circadian rhythms are innate patterns of physiological and behavioral activity that regulate the active and resting periods of all living things. We predicted that degus would be able to perform this task because of the nature of their native environment and the necessity to find food sources at varying times of day and we predicted that males would learn the task faster than females. We predicted that degus would be able to perform this task because of the nature of their native environment and the necessity to find food sources at varying times of day and we predicted that males would learn the task faster than females.

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