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The effect of dizocilpine (MK-801) on conditional discrimination learning in the rat.

The effect of the non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-receptor antagonist, dizocilpine (MK-801) on the acquisition and reversal of conditional tasks was investigated using a Y-maze. Dizocilpine-treated rats were severely impaired on acquisition of a visuo-spatial task and were unable to learn the reversal of this task. 'Worse than chance' performance by dizocilpine-treated (and saline-treated) rats at the beginning of reversal testing, which was given 24 h after achieving criterion on acquisition, indicated that dizocilpine-treated animals simultaneously exhibited good memory but impaired learning for the type of information required for this task. Dizocilpine-treated rats were unable to acquire a visuo-visual conditional discrimination and therefore could not be assessed on reversal of this task. These very substantial impairments were larger than those found in comparable experiments using non-conditional tasks.

Animals↗

The effects of anteromedial cortex lesions on pattern discrimination learning in rat.

The visual angular difference threshold of rats with unilateral anteromedial cortex lesions was measured. The stereotyped running pattern and preoperatively preferred side of approach in a two-choice visual discrimination apparatus was recorded for each animal. Lesions in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the preferred approach side did not affect either the running pattern or the angular difference threshold. However, there was a general reduction in the detection of the positive stimulus throughout the scale. Lesions in the contralateral hemisphere produced a transient reversal of the side preference with an overall loss of S + detection in the field contralateral to the side approached.

Animals↗

Effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine on conditional discrimination learning in adult rats.

Adult male rats that were gestationally exposed to cocaine and control offspring were trained on an instrumental conditioning task for assessment of the acquisition and reversal of an appetitive conditional discrimination based on olfactory cues. Offspring were derived from Sprague-Dawley dams that had received subcutaneous injections of 40 mg/kg/3 cc cocaine hydrochloride (C40) daily on Gestational Days 8-20, pair-fed (PF) dams that were injected with saline, nutritional control dams (NC) that had received saline injections, and nontreated control dams (LC). There were no differences among the prenatal treatment groups in acquisition of the barpress response or response rate throughout all phases of training. All prenatal treatment groups required approximately the same number of sessions to criterion on the initial odor discrimination. In contrast, adult C40 offspring required more sessions to acquire the reversal of the conditional discrimination than did animals from the other treatment groups (PF, NC, and LC). In addition, even at criterion performance for acquisition of the reversal discrimination, C40 animals exhibited lower accuracy on the first 10 responses and made significantly more errors before the first reward. Taken together with previous results, these findings suggest that gestational exposure to cocaine results in long-lasting alterations in performance on conditioning tasks that are evident early in life and that persist into adulthood.

Animals↗