Two levels below ground, under a small, drab building at the University of Bonn, is a wall of cages containing mice that, according to standard tests, are extraordinarily average. They learn and remember how to run mazes no better nor worse than other mice.
It takes them a typical amount of time to figure out how to extricate themselves from a tank of water with hidden exit steps. There’s nothing out of line about how they interact with other mice, nor their willingness to explore open spaces.
And yet these mice are the center of attention at the lab of Andreas Zimmer. That’s because their boringly average minds may well hold the key to beating Alzheimer’s and elderly dementia.
Many of the mice are 18 months old, roughly equivalent to a 70-year-old human. Mice normally start to show mental decline at around a year old, and by 18 months, struggle with mazes and other mental tasks, as well as with socializing.
But not these rodent seniors. “You can’t tell the difference between them and two-month-old mice,” says Zimmer.
