Effects of chronic supplementation of homotaurine on cognitiveprocesses and spatial cognition in aged dogs: Preliminary results

Aged dogs may develop age-related neuropathological and behavioral changes including the reduction intheir memory and learning abilities. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of dietary supple-mentation with tramiprosate (homotaurine) on spatial cognition of aging dogs. Twenty-four aged dogs,sheltered in the same kennel, were randomly assigned into two groupsdone group receiving homo-taurine supplementation (500 mg once daily) and the other group, living in the same environment,without any supplementation. Cognitive testing was conducted using a T-maze. The experimental pro-cedure consisted of four stages: a one-time direction-determination trial and a learning task, memorytask, and reversal learning task that were done at T zero (immediately before supplementation start) andrepeated after 4, 8, and 12 months. Data were collected from video-recordings by a single observer. Thehomotaurine-supplemented dogs were able to maintain a better performance in learning and memorytrials with the largest differences observed in the reversal learning test, with a higher number of dogsable to pass the test (P<0.05). The results suggest that dietary supplementation with homotaurinetogether with the additional stimulation and exercise of a learning activity seems to slowdown thecognitive aging in dog.