A water maze is a device used to test an animal's memory in which the alleys are filled with water, providing a motivation to escape.[1]
Many different mazes exist, such as T- and Y-mazes,[2] Cincinnati water mazes,[3] and radial arm mazes.[4] Water mazes have been used to test discrimination learning[2] and spatial learning abilities.[4] The Morris water navigation task is often called a "water maze task", but this is erroneous as it is not, properly speaking, a maze.[1] The development of these mazes has aided research into, for example, hippocampal synaptic plasticity, NMDA receptor function, and looking into neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.