2005 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Cooperative Agreement between ARS and Pom Wonderful/the Stewart and Linda Resnick Revocable Trust of Los Angeles, CA. Animals and humans show increased motor and cognitive declines with aging, thought to be due to increased susceptibility to the long-term effects of oxidative stress and inflammation. Previous findings have suggested that improvements in these age-related declines might be accomplished by increasing the dietary intake of polyphenolics found in fruits and vegetables, especially those identified as being high in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Therefore, we investigated whether pomegranate (POM) juice would be effective in altering motor and cognitive behavioral deficits in aged rodents that were fed water or diets supplemented with low (.33 %) or high (3.3%) amounts of pomegranate juice for 8 weeks (beginning when the rats were 19 months of age and tested at 21 months of age). To determine whether rats consuming the low and high amounts of POM juice significantly improved their cognitive performance as measured in the Morris water maze, differences were calculated between Trial 1, which measured reference (long-term) memory and Trial 2, which measured working (short-term) memory. Trial 2 was performed 10 minutes following Trial 1. No improved performance was seen in the high POM group. The low POM juice showed improved working memory (i.e., there was a significant difference between Trial 1 and Trial 2 performance), however, Trial 1 performance in the low POM juice group was worse than the water group, i.e., the low POM juice group took longer to find the hidden platform on the reference memory trial. Working memory performance was not different between the groups. Therefore, one cannot conclude that the low POM juice had improved performance compared to the water group. Interestingly, dopamine release was significantly greater in both the low and high POM groups, compared to water, therefore, showing greater muscarinic receptor sensitivity in the supplemented groups. The doses of pomegranate (POM) juice used, .33 % (low) and 3.3% (high) may not have been high enough as they were not effective in reversing the age effects on the behavioral parameters examined. Additional details of this research can be found in the report for the parent CRIS 1950-51000-063-00D Nutritional Modulation of Brain Aging and Cognitive Decline. All studies with pomegranate juice were completed in 2005.