Effects of estradiol on radial arm maze performance of young and aged rats.

Gonadectomized male and female Sprague-Dawley rats, given estradiol (E2) via sc Silastic capsules that generated proestrus levels of hormones, were tested for spatial memory performance on an 8-arm radial maze. Performance of males, with or without E2, exceeded that of females, with or without E2, for choice accuracy parameters over 20 trials. In addition, males reached criterion earlier than females (6 vs 11 trials). There were no significant effects of E2 on performance of either sex. When a 1-h delay was instituted between the 4th and 5th choices, the performance of males remained better than that of the females, and E2 administration was associated with a small, but significant, improvement in performance of the males but not the females. E2 administration to 25-month-old males also did not affect performance in regular trials, but performance was enhanced in trials with delays of 1-3 h after the 4th choice. These results show that estradiol can influence spatial memory performance and suggest that E2 may be beneficial for age and/or disease-related memory impairments.