Caffeine effects on working memory using radial arm maze in BALB/C mice / Nur Izzura Jaafar

Background: Leaming and memory are part of cognitive function that are essential in human. Caffeine acts as brain stimulant. Studies have shown that the consumption of moderate amount of caffeine increases the ability to attention, alertness, cognitive performance and motor performance via blockade of adenosine receptors. In this report, we demonstrate that effect of caffeine on working memory using radial arm maze in BALB/c mice. Results and Discussion: The results showed that caffeine does not have effects on the number of correct entries into the baited arms which represents the working memory performance, indicating that mice did not learned the task. Besides that, the caffeine-treated mice showed high percentage of working memory errors than control animals. The working memory errors were assessed as the number of re-entries into arms already entered during the same trial. Although the value is not significant, the caffeine­ treated mice performing greater average speed than control. It shows the caffeine-treated mice have higher locomotor activity. Conclusion: In summary, this present study documents the working memory-enhancing properties of caffeine administration in BALB/c mice. To further explain the cognitive effects of caffeine on working memory, the study should be repeated on different strain of mice with different doses of caffeine.