Research digest
The research digest
Every study below used the Morris water maze. We read each original article and summarised it in fresh words; follow the link for the full paper or report.
An underactive thyroid chips away at memory in stages
Male Wistar rats were made hypothyroid with propylthiouracil for 6, 10 or 14 weeks. Mood-like changes came first (open-field movement roughly halved at six weeks), object recognition slipped next, and only the 14-week group struggled in the water maze, taking about twice as long to find the platform and spending 40% less time in its quadrant. Hippocampal GLUT4 protein climbed while its mRNA stayed flat, and levothyroxine undid the changes. A tidy reminder that how long a model runs can decide which test catches it.
Read the original at Endokrynologia PolskaTwo plant diterpenes tested against amyloid damage
Pseudolaric acids A and B shielded cultured PC12 cells from amyloid-beta-induced cell death and damped inflammation in stimulated microglia and macrophages. The team then moved to mice given aluminium chloride as an Alzheimer's-like model, where pseudolaric acid B improved spatial learning and memory in the Morris water maze. The authors say plainly that the signalling story still has to be confirmed in living animals.
Read the original at ACS Pharmacology & Translational ScienceA brain support cell that seems to set the body's pace of ageing
FGF13 falls with age in the brain's non-neuronal cells. Deleting it from astrocytes in ageing mice made their water maze performance worse and raised markers of senescence in organs from the skin to the kidney. Boosting it did the opposite: older mice swam the maze about as well as young ones, did better in the elevated plus maze and open field and showed lower IL-6 and IFN-gamma. The study, reported from Aging Cell, points to more autophagy via a partner protein called Phafin2.
Aging Cell
Read the original at Lifespan.ioTreadmill time helps rat brains bounce back after morphine
Male rats, some castrated, received morphine twice a day for ten days and then 28 days of mild or moderate treadmill running, with or without testosterone. Withdrawal and castration each dented spatial learning, spatial memory and avoidance memory, and both lowered BDNF in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Both exercise levels helped, moderate running more so, while testosterone's extra benefit was partial and depended on the group. Published in Behavioral and Brain Functions.
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgToo much salt, and older mice lose their way
Twelve-month-old male mice ate chow with 8% salt or a normal 0.5% for two months, ten per group, with testers blinded. The salty group learned the water maze more slowly, with gaps opening on days four and five, and did worse on every probe measure: crossings, time over the old platform spot, distance and target-quadrant time. Swim speed and open-field behaviour didn't differ, which is exactly the control you want before calling it a memory effect. The authors link the deficit to more amyloid-beta and a mitochondrial clean-up response that tried, and failed, to keep up. Published in Frontiers in Neurology.
Frontiers in Neurology
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgHippocampal navigation can run on habit
Rats (20 males, 22 females) learned a maze where the same left or right turn led to milk or to water, depending on where the choice was made. After a day without water, only rats that re-experienced the maze while thirsty switched towards the water-linked turns; rats that merely tasted both drinks while thirsty kept heading for milk, even when the task needed the hippocampus. Not a water maze study in the swimming sense, but a sharp point for anyone who reads every direct path as goal-directed thinking.
Read the original at The Journal of NeuroscienceExercise order matters, and BDNF doesn't tell the whole story
Forty male Wistar rats were split into five groups for eight weeks: endurance running, rotarod training, each combination in either order, or no training. Endurance work gave the highest hippocampal BDNF, yet the group that did rotarod first and endurance second learned the water maze fastest. Probe trials, object recognition and passive avoidance showed no group differences. The neat lesson: a molecular marker and a behavioural score won't always rise together.
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgHuperzine A and a less obvious memory circuit
In mice with narrowed blood supply to the brain (bilateral carotid occlusion), huperzine A improved water maze, novel object and Y-maze scores without changing how much the animals moved. The China Pharmaceutical University team traced the effect to more acetylcholine in the dorsal striatum, acting through alpha-7 nicotinic receptors and a striatum to substantia nigra pathway. Delivering huperzine A, acetylcholine or donepezil straight into the dorsal striatum reproduced the benefit. The paper appeared in Targetome.
Targetome
Read the original at EurekAlert!A nasal treatment helped ageing males, not females
SAMP8 mice, a fast-ageing strain, received the Euphorbia-derived diterpene ER272 by nose for eight weeks from four months of age. Both sexes were impaired in the water maze and in object discrimination, but only treated males recovered, spending more time in the target quadrant at probe. Open-field testing ruled out changes in general movement. The case for testing both sexes, in one paper. Published in Aging Cell.
Aging Cell
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgA liver-acting drug, a better memory in Alzheimer's model mice
The pan-AMPK activator MK-8722 was given to APP/PS1 mice aged six to eight months. It switched on AMPK in the liver but not the hippocampus, yet treated mice did better on hippocampus-dependent spatial memory and had more mature dendritic spines. Long-term potentiation didn't change. Blood lipid and metabolite profiles that were off in the model mice moved partway back to normal, hinting that metabolism outside the brain can nudge memory inside it.
Read the original at Journal of NeurochemistryA muscle-powered robot the size of a stick of gum
A different kind of water maze: MIT engineers built a flat gel strip with fins of light-sensitive muscle cells. Flash one fin and it contracts, so the robot can be steered through a small obstacle course. Top speed is about four body lengths a minute, roughly the cruising pace of a sixgill shark. For tracking fans, it's a fresh case of following a swimmer frame by frame.
Read the original at NotebookcheckPressing on the shinbone helped injured brains recover
Researchers gently compressed the shinbones of mice, 300 times at two per second, five days a week, after brain injury. More treated mice survived, damage was smaller, and they found the hidden platform in a water maze better than untreated mice. The effect needed a pressure sensor called PIEZO1 in bone cells, serum from treated mice protected other injured mice, and the approach also helped miniature pigs. Published in Nature Neuroscience.
Nature Neuroscience
Read the original at ScienceAlertA carbon football that calms the brain after radiation
A team at UTHealth Houston gave mice a single oral dose of a water-soluble C60 fullerene, C60-ser, a day after cranial irradiation. It restored spatial working memory and damped chronic brain inflammation. The most telling test was Y-maze alternation, and the authors suggest adding the Morris water maze next. Published in Biomedical Microdevices, with an eye on cancer patients and even deep-space crews.
Biomedical Microdevices
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgNewborn anaesthesia: the Y-maze caught what the water maze didn't
Seven-day-old rats had two hours of sevoflurane or propofol. Both raised hippocampal caspase-3 and left a lasting working-memory dip in the Y-maze at day 42, yet the Morris water maze showed no difference. Metabolomics found drug-specific fingerprints: six metabolites stayed high after propofol, and one phosphatidylcholine stayed low after sevoflurane. A useful case for running more than one test.
Read the original at Scientific ReportsIcariin and the stressed nucleolus
Icariin, the main active compound of the herb Herba Epimedii, was tested in APP/PS1 mice and in cultured microglia. In the water maze (four trials a day for four days, then a probe and a contraposition exploration test), treated mice crossed the old platform spot more often and swam distances closer to healthy controls, though the time to find the platform didn't clearly improve. The authors connect the effect to relief of nucleolar stress, the cell's ribosome factory under strain.
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgAfter blood loss and rescue, memory hinges on microglia
Male mice that survived haemorrhagic shock and resuscitation were tested on object recognition at day 31 and in the water maze from day 32. They took longer to find the platform, crossed its old spot less and spent less time in the target quadrant, while swimming at normal speed. Blocking the NLRP3 inflammasome in microglia brought performance back. Published in Behavioral and Brain Functions.
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgAn Astragalus saponin after traumatic brain injury
A Lanzhou University group gave astragaloside IV to male C57BL/6 mice after controlled cortical impact, at 40 or 80 mg/kg every other day for four weeks, with GM1 ganglioside as the comparison treatment. The 40 mg/kg dose shortened water maze escape times, and NMDA receptor blockers cancelled the benefit, pointing to glutamate signalling. Published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Frontiers in Pharmacology
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgAnabolic steroid, foggier spatial memory, and a careful design
Twenty-seven male Wistar rats received nandrolone at 5 or 15 mg/kg, or vehicle, every third day for 22 days. Animals were coded, the tester was blind and a separate person ran the statistics. In the water maze (four trials a day for four days, platform 1 cm under the surface) the probe trial showed a memory deficit while movement stayed normal, and hippocampal calcineurin rose. Published in Behavioral and Brain Functions.
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgApigenin, noradrenaline and the brain's lactate supply
Eight weeks of D-galactose, a common accelerated-ageing model, impaired mice on object recognition, the water maze and the Y-maze. Apigenin, a flavonoid found in several medicinal herbs, improved all three. The Heilongjiang team links this to the GPR30 receptor, more norepinephrine release and more brain lactate, and they flag limits around the model and the sex of the animals. Published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Frontiers in Pharmacology
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgSoft food, older mice and the hippocampus's support cells
Female Swiss albino mice aged 6 or 18 months lived on hard pellets, soft food, or a switch between them, and astrocytes in one hippocampal layer were counted and measured. The team reanalysed earlier water maze data as a single contrast index, and older mice scored lower on day four. A study about texture, chewing and glia that uses maze data as its behavioural anchor. Published in Behavioral and Brain Functions.
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgA 14-herb formula in rats with reduced brain blood flow
Rats with both carotid arteries tied off (9 sham, 12 model, 13 treated) received Modified Dioscorea Pills for 45 days. In the water maze the treated group pulled away from untreated model rats by day three and crossed the platform site more often at probe. The article is clear that this doesn't establish a treatment for human dementia.
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgCould sea squirts help ageing brains?
Plasmalogens are fats found in cell membranes that decline with age. Aged female mice given plasmalogens from sea squirts for two months did better in a water maze, kept more synapses, showed calmer microglia and even grew thicker, darker coats. Fun, and firmly mouse-only for now.
Read the original at Free Malaysia TodaySeventeen rat studies, one postmenopausal model, very low certainty
A systematic review pooled 17 studies that combined ovariectomy with D-galactose in rats to mimic postmenopausal Alzheimer's-like change. Fifteen agents were tested, eight repurposed drugs and seven herbal products. Escitalopram, dapagliflozin and lapatinib improved water maze results, and dimethyl fumarate improved Barnes maze results, but the reviewers rate the certainty of evidence as very low.
Read the original at Bioengineer.orgThirty-four trials of immersive VR after stroke
A systematic review of immersive virtual reality after stroke pooled 34 randomised trials (about 1,200 adults across acute, subacute and chronic phases), searching to April 2025. Immersive VR was most often added to ordinary rehab. Meta-analyses favoured VR for upper-limb motor impairment on the Fugl-Meyer Assessment and for selected gait measures such as walking speed and stride length, while balance, everyday function and quality of life stayed mixed. Certainty of evidence was low to very low. The authors call VR a promising, generally safe supplement, not a proven replacement, and ask for larger, cleaner trials. Open access in PLoS One; PROSPERO CRD420250639792.
PLoS One
Read the original at PLoS OneAt SfN San Diego, the maze met the booth
The Neuroscience 2025 exhibitor page for HVS Image (booth 2019, San Diego Convention Center, 16 to 19 November 2025) puts Morris water maze expertise front and centre, alongside video tracking billed as fast, precise and effortless, a VR Morris water maze for humans that links rodent and human work, and immersive VR tools for cognition, movement and rehabilitation. The booth copy traces the line from the company's early pioneering maze work to measures and automated analyses meant to show how animals learn, remember and choose a strategy, and it flags HVS Image 2026 for MWM and other tests as a conference release. Visitors were invited to try MWM and hyper-realistic human scenes in HVS 6D VR on the stand.
Read the original at Neuroscience 2025 (SfN)Teaching a computer what a rearing rat looks like
This open-access mini review from the University of Sherbrooke starts from an awkward truth: much of rodent behaviour has been scored by hand, counting bouts and describing postures, which is slow and hard to repeat. The authors break behaviour into building blocks, from whole patterns down to single movements and the poses inside them, so that software has something clear to recognise. Supervised systems learn from examples a researcher has labelled, such as rearing; unsupervised ones look for structure on their own and may spot parts of the ethogram people miss. HVS Image is named among the five main companies selling ready-to-use packages for maze, open field and social tracking, with the sensible caveat that any system should be checked against human scoring. Their verdict: automated, quantitative assessment is where behavioural science is heading.
Read the original at Frontiers in Behavioral NeuroscienceWarfarin, vitamin K and a quieter open field
Young male Wistar rats were kept for ten weeks on warfarin plus vitamin K1, a recipe that keeps blood clotting normal while starving the brain of its own form of vitamin K, MK-4. Brain MK-4 fell to roughly a quarter to two fifths of control levels. In the open field, tracked with an HVS 2020 system and HVS Image software, treated rats travelled less far and crossed fewer squares; they were also slower to learn the water maze. The elevated plus maze showed no change in anxiety-like behaviour, a useful reminder that less movement is not the same as more worry. Rats with more MK-4 in the brain moved and explored more, and brain lipids of the ganglioside family shifted too.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
Read the original at Frontiers in Aging NeuroscienceWhen VR first walked into the therapy clinic
In October 2017 Zoe Mutter reported that HVS Image had released HVS 4D VR, a system meant to let clinicians write their own therapeutic regimens, gamify them and even send them home for denser practice than clinic slots allow. Centres already using it included Harvard Medical School and Vanderbilt University Medical Centre. Treatments named in the piece cover stroke rehab, Alzheimer's, depression, anxiety and neuromotor work; patients move through scenes by walking, controllers or 2D treadmills, and sessions can be scored numerically or by automated reports. (Today the product line is HVS 6D VR; the article itself names HVS 4D VR.)
Read the original at AV MagazineThirty-three trials, one clear tilt toward lower anxiety scores
Zeng, Xu, Yu and Chu pooled 33 randomised trials (3,182 adolescents and adults) comparing virtual reality therapy with conventional care. Across anxiety measures, VR favoured lower symptoms (SMD -0.95, 95% CI -1.22 to -0.69). Heterogeneity was high, many trials sat in perioperative or procedural settings, and the authors say larger, cleaner studies are still needed. Open access in Frontiers in Psychiatry, PROSPERO CRD42024574772.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Read the original at Frontiers in PsychiatryFour pools, Atlantis platforms, and an HVS 2020 tracker
George Mason University's Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience facilities page lists a Morris water maze that works with the HVS 2020 system to collect behavioural data for rats and mice. The lab keeps four pools, six, five, four and three feet across, two feet deep, paintable white or black so dark or albino animals can be tracked. Platforms cover Atlantis and moving-platform paradigms, a camera above the maze feeds the HVS imaging system, and large black cues sit on a white surround. The same HVS 2020 set-up can also score open-field behaviour. A rare public inventory that names both the tracker and the Atlantis kit in one place.
Read the original at George Mason University CBNWhen the first stretch of a swim path tells more than the whole trial
A technical note deposited on Zenodo by HVS Image Software Ltd defines the Baker-Hawthorne Direct Path Measures for Morris water maze analysis: how to implement them, how to read them, where they fail, and when to use them. The point is to catch different forms of early, goal-directed navigation toward the target or its immediate vicinity, detail that whole-trial scores can bury. The same principles are meant to travel from rodent pools to virtual reality spatial tasks in humans. Open access under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21870805.
Zenodo
Read the original at ZenodoWhen the animal barely moves, the latency lies
A technical note deposited on Zenodo by HVS Image Software Ltd defines the inactivity, or floating, measure for Morris water maze analysis: how to implement it, how to read it, where it fails, and when to use it. The point is to keep poor cognitive scores from being confused with non-cognitive drag such as fatigue, disengagement or motor slowing, by reading floating alongside complementary measures. The same principles are meant to travel from rodent pools to virtual reality spatial tasks in humans. Open access under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21797204.
Zenodo
Read the original at ZenodoA third-party analysis tool that still reads HVS Image files
Wintrack, the free water maze analysis program written by David Wolfer, keeps a page on one job only: opening path data from HVS Image's Water 2020 software, the package once called Water for Windows. Each .HVS file holds one trial or session sampled at a steady rate, and Wintrack wants that rate at 0.1 s, so the tracker goes on its SLOW setting if the data are heading that way. Older files ending .DRY or .WET are recognised too, the goal position comes across and fixes the target quadrant, and a plain text list of file names pulls a whole batch into one case document, with a space and a minus sign standing in for a missing trial. Platform coordinates, though, have to be typed in by hand. A small page, but a telling one: raw, time-stamped position files that other people's software can still open years later are exactly what you want from a tracker.
Read the original at Wintrack (David P. Wolfer)A lab wiki that still puts HVS Image on the tracking shortlist
Florida State University's Houpt Lab keeps a public MagnetoWiki page on building a water maze for mice. Under tracking software it names five commercial options side by side, and HVS Image is one of them, alongside Watermaze Software, Actimetrics, Biobserve and Muromachi's DV-Track. The same page also points readers to HVS Image for a list of suppliers that sell galvanised or polyethylene tanks. It is a working lab note, not a review article, and a useful reminder that when people write their own shopping list for video tracking, the brand still shows up in plain sight.
Read the original at MagnetoWiki (Houpt Lab)Children with NF1 in an HVS virtual water maze
An exploratory Vanderbilt study put children with neurofibromatosis type 1 and reading difficulty into a virtual reality water maze built as a human analogue of the Morris task. The software was the HVS Water Maze (Version 2017.7, HVS Image Software), run on a PC with an Oculus Rift headset: six learning trials and a probe, with path length, latency and Gallagher cumulative search error recorded at a fixed swim speed. Typically developing children matched on reading skill (n = 14) generally outperformed the NF1 group (n = 17) on the learning trials, even after IQ and working memory were taken into account, yet the probe trial showed no clear group difference. Early navigation looked harder for NF1; with practice the gap narrowed. Open abstract on PubMed (PMID 40874180).
Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology
Read the original at Journal of Pediatric NeuropsychologyWhen American Laboratory walked the SfN VR aisle
In March 2017 Steve Ernst looked back on Society for Neuroscience exhibit floors where virtual reality tools for research were multiplying. Among four vendors he singled out, HVS Image (Oxfordshire) was described as combining decades of animal behaviour analysis with human psychophysics to build a highly immersive HVS 4D VR environment for people: full stereo 3-D with real-world physics, animal-test analogues such as the Morris water maze, open field and novel object recognition, plus virtual forests, suburbs and homes for spatial learning and anxiety work, with built-in analysis and Matlab export, and interfaces from headsets and gamepads to free walking and an omnidirectional treadmill. (Today the product line is HVS 6D VR; the article itself names HVS 4D VR.)
Read the original at American LaboratoryIf the mouse can't see the cues, the maze is not a memory test
A Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience review argues that strain differences in hearing, vision and sensory gating can make a rodent look cognitively impaired when it simply cannot reach the stimuli the task assumes. Across 13 mouse strains, differences in visual acuity explained a large share of water maze variability, while albino and pigmented rats differ several-fold in grating acuity. The authors urge labs to name exact substrains, check the senses the task needs, and read behavioural scores beside sensory controls before calling a result memory. Published as Liu, Wang and Zhao, 2026; DOI 10.3389/fnbeh.2026.2010984.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Read the original at Bioengineer.org