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PubMed1995

Sex differences in vulnerability to developmental spatial learning deficits induced by limited binge alcohol exposure in neonatal rats.

The two main objectives of this study were (1) to replicate previous findings that 6 days of binge-like exposure to alcohol during the neonatal brain growth spurt induces significant place learning deficits in juvenile rats and (2) to determine whether more limited (3-day) binge-like exposure during the neonatal period induces place learning deficits and whether the effects depend on the developmental timing of the exposure. Using artificial rearing methods and a split-litter experimental design, groups of male and female neonatal rats were given binge-like exposure to 4.5 g/kg/day of ethanol in milk formula either on Postnatal Days (PD) 4-6, PD 7-9, or PD 4-9, which yielded mean peak blood alcohol concentrations of 230-260 mg/dl. Controls included an artificially reared gastrostomy control group (GC) given an isocaloric milk formula diet on PD 4-9 and a suckle control group reared normally by lactating dams. Acquisition of place learning in the Morris spatial navigation task was trained for 6 consecutive days beginning on PD 26; a probe trial was given at the end of the sixth day. As expected, both males and females given alcohol on PD 4-9 had significant deficits in acquisition and probe trial performance relative to SC and GC groups. Males given the PD 7-9 exposure had significant place learning deficits which were as severe as with the full 6-day exposure. The PD 4-6 exposure in males produced only a nonsignificant trend toward slower acquisition. Females were not significantly affected by either 3-day exposure. The latter phase of the neonatal brain growth spurt appears to constitute a sex-specific period of enhanced vulnerability to alcohol-induced developmental spatial learning deficits.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Selective lesions of the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus, or the fimbria-fornix in rats: a comparison of effects on spontaneous and amphetamine-induced locomotion.

Using adult Long-Evans male rats, this experiment compared spontaneous (assessed 15 days and 4.5 months after surgery) and amphetamine-induced (assessed from 4.5 months after surgery onwards; 1 mg/kg, i.p., ten injections, 48 h apart) locomotor activity following N-methyl-D-aspartate lesions of the entorhinal cortex, electrolytic lesions of the fimbria-fornix, or ibotenate lesions of the hippocampus. Sham-operated rats were used as controls. Hippocampal and fimbria-fornix lesions, but not entorhinal-cortex lesions induced diurnal and nocturnal hyperactivity, which was attenuated over time, but only in rats with fimbria-fornix lesions. Amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion was assessed in a familiar environment. Lesions of the entorhinal cortex potentiated the locomotor effects of amphetamine, but not lesions of the hippocampus or interruption of the axons in the fimbria-fornix pathway. Sensitization appeared to be decreased by fimbria-fornix lesions and to be prevented by hippocampal lesions. Rats with entorhinal-cortex lesions behaved as if they had already been sensitized by the lesion. These results clearly show that lesions of the fimbria-fornix, the hippocampus, and of the entorhinal cortex have different effects on spontaneous and amphetamine-induced hyperactivity, as they also have on learning and memory tasks.

Amphetamine↗
PubMed1990

Muscimol injections in the medial septum impair spatial learning.

These experiments examined the role of GABAergic systems in modulating septohippocampal cholinergic influences on learning. Microinjections of the GABA(A) agonist muscimol (0.5, 1.0 or 5.0 nmol) or physiological saline were administered (0.5 microliters) into the medial septum of rats via chronically implanted cannulae just prior to daily training in the Morris water maze spatial learning task. The animals received 3 training trials on each of 4 days. The escape latencies of rats trained with a submerged escape platform at a fixed location were significantly shorter than those trained with a randomly located platform. Rate of learning of the fixed location was significantly impaired in rats given pretraining muscimol injections in the medial septum at doses (1.0 and 5.0 nmol) that significantly reduced hippocampal high-affinity choline uptake (HACU). Analyses of responses on a probe trial with no pretraining injections and no platform revealed that, in comparison with controls, animals that had received muscimol prior to each training session were likely to swim in the region where the platform had been located. The finding that muscimol-injected rats were subsequently able to learn the task when trained without muscimol injections indicates that the acquisition impairment was not due to a lasting effect of the drug injections. Our results are consistent with the view that the septal GABAergic modulation of the septohippocampal cholinergic pathway is involved in regulating the acquisition of spatial information.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Deprivation of endogenous brain-derived neurotrophic factor results in impairment of spatial learning and memory in adult rats.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is abundantly expressed in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex and is involved in synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation (LTP). The present study was under taken to investigate whether endogenous BDNF was required for spatial learning and memory in a rat model. Antibodies to BDNF (anti-BDNF, n=7) or control immunoglobulin G (control, n=6) were delivered into the rat brain continuously for 7 days with an osmotic pump. The rats were then subjected to a battery of behavioral tests. The results show that the average escape latencies in the BDNF antibody treated group were dramatically longer than those of the control (F=13.3, p<0.001). The rats treated with control IgG swam for a significantly longer distance in the P quadrant (where the escape plane had been placed) compared with the other three quadrants (p<0.05). In contrast, anti-BDNF-treated rats swam an equivalent distance in all four quadrants. The average percentage of swimming distance in the P quadrant by anti-BDNF-treated rats was much less than that by control IgG treated rats (p<0.001). These results suggest that endogenous BDNF is required for spatial learning and memory in adult rats.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Adult-born hippocampal neurons mature into activity-dependent responsiveness.

The mammalian hippocampus is a highly plastic brain structure in which new neurons are generated throughout adulthood. Do these new neurons qualitatively and quantitatively participate in the activity-dependent gene expression after challenging the hippocampus in a learning task? Adult mice were injected with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to label dividing cells and indeed, individual BrdU-labelled new neurons expressed the immediate early gene protein (IEGp) c-fos during the acquisition phase of the Morris water maze task to the same extend as older granule cells. To assess the responsiveness of all new neurons we also analysed the expression patterns of three IEGps (c-fos, zif268 and Homer1A) after kainic acid (KA)- or pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures. We found that after a maturation period of between 2 and 5 weeks a comparable ratio of adult-generated granule cells participated in IEGp-expression as in the population of older granule cells. Thus, new neurons appear quantitatively integrated into hippocampal circuits, suggestive of a relevant contribution to hippocampal function.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Pharmacological characterization of the ameliorating effect on short-term memory impairment and antinociceptive effect of KT-90 in mice.

(-)-3-Acetyl-6beta-acetylthio-N-cyclopropylmethyl-normorphine (KT-90) is a synthesized compound that binds to mu-, delta- and kappa-opioid receptors in vitro. KT-90 induces analgesia in the tail-flick test and this effect is antagonized by nor-BNI, a selective kappa-opioid receptor antagonist. However, lower doses of KT-90 antagonize morphine-induced analgesia. We reported that kappa-opioid receptor agonists such as U-50,488H and dynorphin A (1-13), improved scopolamine-induced impairment of learning and memory in mice and/or rats. In this study, the effects of KT-90 were investigated in an acetic acid-induced writhing test and scopolamine-induced memory impairment test using spontaneous alternation performance in a Y-maze. Male ddY mice were treated with scopolamine (1.65 micromol/kg, s.c.) 30 min before the behavioral test. KT-90 (0.07-2.35 micromol/kg, s.c.) was injected 30 min before testing. In the writhing test, the antinociceptive effect of KT-90 (0.71 micromol/kg) was completely antagonized by a selective mu-opioid receptor antagonist, beta-funaltrexamine (10.2 nmol/mouse, i.c.v.) and partially antagonized by nor-BNI (4.9 nmol/mouse, i.c.v.), but it was not antagonized by a selective delta-opioid receptor antagonist, naltrindole (9.1 pmol/mouse, i.c.v.). KT-90 significantly improved the impairment of spontaneous alternation induced by scopolamine. The ameliorating effect of KT-90 was not antagonized by nor-BNI, but was almost completely antagonized by a selective sigma receptor antagonist, NE-100 (2.6 micromol/kg, i.p.). These results suggested that the KT-90-induced antinociceptive effect was mediated by mu- and partially by kappa-opioid receptors, and the KT-90-induced improvement in scopolamine-induced impairment of spontaneous alternation was mediated mainly via sigma receptors.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Effect of the 5-HT6 receptor antagonists Ro04-6790 and Ro65-7199 on latent inhibition and prepulse inhibition in the rat: comparison to clozapine.

In the present study, we have investigated the effects of two selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonists, Ro04-6790 and Ro65-7199, in three drug-induced models of PPI disruption and on latent inhibition (LI) utilizing a conditioned lick suppression (CLS) procedure. Clozapine was included in each experiment for comparison. Neither Ro04-6790 nor Ro65-7199 (both 30 mg/kg) affected the PPI disruption produced by PCP (1.5 mg/kg s.c.), apomorphine (0.1 mg/kg s.c.), or LSD (0.1 mg/kg s.c.). There was also no interaction between each drug and CS preexposure in the CLS test indicating a failure of each drug to facilitate LI. In contrast, clozapine (12 mg/kg) attenuated an apomorphine and PCP-induced PPI deficit, although the PPI disruption produced by LSD was not significantly affected. At a lower dose of 5 mg/kg, clozapine also facilitated LI. Since each of these tests bear some predictive validity for the detection of antipsychotic drugs, the present studies do not support a therapeutic potential of 5-HT6 receptor antagonists in this regard.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1999

Age-related cognitive deficits, impaired long-term potentiation and reduction in synaptic marker density in mice lacking the beta-amyloid precursor protein.

Mutations in the beta-amyloid precursor protein are strongly associated with some cases of familial Alzheimer's disease. The normal physiological role of beta-amyloid precursor protein in the brain was evaluated in a cross-sectional analysis of mice deficient in beta-amyloid precursor protein. Compared with wild-type control mice the beta-amyloid precursor protein-null mice developed age-dependent deficits in cognitive function and also had impairments in long-term potentiation. In addition, the brains of the beta-amyloid precursor protein-null mice had marked reactive gliosis in many areas, especially in the cortex and hippocampus. A subpopulation of mice (n = 15) died prematurely (between three and 18 months of age). Analysis of another six mice from the same population that were showing weight loss and hypolocomotor activity exhibited a marked reactive gliosis as detected by immunoreactivity for glial fibrillary acidic protein and a profound loss of immunoreactivities for the presynaptic terminal vesicle marker proteins synaptophysin and synapsin and the dendritic marker microtubule-associated protein-2 in many brain areas, but most predominantly in the cortex and hippocampus. These results suggest that normal beta-amyloid precursor protein may serve an essential role in the maintenance of synaptic function during ageing. A compromise of this function of the beta-amyloid precursor protein may contribute to the progression of the memory decline and the neurodegenerative changes seen in Alzheimer's disease.

Aging↗
PubMed2006

Deficits in acetylcholine homeostasis, receptors and behaviors in choline transporter heterozygous mice.

Cholinergic neurons elaborate a hemicholinium-3 (HC-3) sensitive choline transporter (CHT) that mediates presynaptic, high-affinity choline uptake (HACU) in support of acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and release. Homozygous deletion of CHT (-/-) is lethal shortly after birth (Ferguson et al. 2004), consistent with CHT as an essential component of cholinergic signaling, but precluding functional analyses of CHT contributions in adult animals. In contrast, CHT+/- mice are viable, fertile and display normal levels of synaptosomal HACU, yet demonstrate reduced CHT protein and increased sensitivity to HC-3, suggestive of underlying cholinergic hypofunction. We find that CHT+/- mice are equivalent to CHT+/+ siblings on measures of motor co-ordination (rotarod), general activity (open field), anxiety (elevated plus maze, light/dark paradigms) and spatial learning and memory (Morris water maze). However, CHT+/- mice display impaired performance as a result of physical challenge in the treadmill paradigm, as well as reduced sensitivity to challenge with the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine in the open field paradigm. These behavioral alterations are accompanied by significantly reduced brain ACh levels, elevated choline levels and brain region-specific decreased expression of M1 and M2 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Our studies suggest that CHT hemizygosity results in adequate baseline ACh stores, sufficient to sustain many phenotypes, but normal sensitivities to physical and/or pharmacological challenge require full cholinergic signaling capacity.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1995

Memantine prevents progressive functional neurodegeneration in rats.

The aim of this study was to examine whether the non-competitive NMDA-antagonist memantine might have neuroprotective properties in an animal model of pro-gressive functional neurodegeneration, without producing NMDA-specific learning and memory deficiencies. Rats were subjected to bilateral clamping of the carotid arteries (BCCA) under pentobarbital anaesthesia for 24 min, and 8-10 days later estimates of their escape latency in finding a hidden platform in a Morris water maze indicated a significant increase. This BCCA-induced increase in escape latency is maximally ameliorated by preinjection of 5 mg/kg of memantine, while higher doses have a lesser effect. BCCA for 60 min produces deficiencies in the maze performance during the second experimental day only, when animals were tested 8-10 days after surgery, but results in severe deficits 6 months later. Intraperitoneal injection of 30 mg/kg memantine 10 minutes before BCCA prevents the development of these deficiencies. In parallel experiments, the apomorphine-induced hypersensitivity of the post-synaptic dopamine receptors, observed 12 months after BCCA, was also prevented by the memantine pre-treatment. No neuronal necrosis was observed after BCCA of either 24 minutes' or 60 minutes' duration. The results suggest that memantine complements the therapeutic value of NMDA antagonists. Further, they lend support to the idea that the glutamatergic NMDA-receptor might play a significant role in the BCCA-induced development of progressive "functional neurodegeneration", i.e. behavioural disturbances and dopamine-receptor hypersensitivity.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1994

Nerve growth factor reverses spatial memory impairments in aged rats.

Aged rats, displaying impairments in spatial learning and memory associated with marked cellular atrophy of forebrain cholinergic neurons, received intracerebroventricular infusions of the neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF), or vehicle. During the 4-week infusion period rats receiving NGF showed improved acquisition and retention of spatial memory. With NGF this was accompanied by a significant reduction in cholinergic neuron atrophy in both septum, nucleus basalis and striatum. The cause of learning and memory deficits associated with ageing is not known. In the present paper we show that learning and memory deficits in aged rats can be reversed by NGF.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1998

Hippocampal dynorphin B injections impair spatial learning in rats: a kappa-opioid receptor-mediated effect.

The hippocampus plays a central role in the acquisition and storage of information. Long-term potentiation in the mossy fibre pathway to the CA3 region in the hippocampus, an animal model of memory acquisition, is modulated by dynorphin peptides. This study investigated the possible role of hippocampal dynorphin in spatial learning. Male rats were trained in the Morris Water Task after microinjection with different doses of dynorphin B (1, 3.3 or 10 nmol/rat) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (as control) into the CA3 region of the dorsal hippocampus. Dynorphin B was found to impair spatial learning at all tested doses. The synthetic kappa1-selective opiate receptor antagonist nor-binaltorphimine (2 nmol) also given into the hippocampus fully blocked the acquisition impairment caused by dynorphin B (10 nmol), while nor-binaltorphimine alone did not affect learning performance. These findings suggest that dynorphin peptides could play a modulatory role in hippocampal plasticity by acting on hippocampal kappa-receptors and thereby impair spatial learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Further evidence that mice learn a win-shift but not a win-stay contingency under water-escape motivation.

Previous research (C. Locurto, C. Emidy, & S. Hannan, 2002) indicated that mice quickly learned a water-escape task under a win-shift contingency but did not exceed chance-level performance under a win-stay contingency. We examined the robustness of this conclusion in two experiments by varying procedural and temporal aspects of that earlier experiment. Results of both experiments indicated that the preference for win-shift learning in mice under water-escape motivation could not be attributed to procedural or design features of that earlier study and were independent of the influence of intertrial interval, normally a variable that produces strong effects on learning. In neither experiment did subjects exposed to a win-stay contingency perform at above-chance levels.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Activity of striatal neurons reflects dynamic encoding and recoding of procedural memories.

Learning to perform a behavioural procedure as a well-ingrained habit requires extensive repetition of the behavioural sequence, and learning not to perform such behaviours is notoriously difficult. Yet regaining a habit can occur quickly, with even one or a few exposures to cues previously triggering the behaviour. To identify neural mechanisms that might underlie such learning dynamics, we made long-term recordings from multiple neurons in the sensorimotor striatum, a basal ganglia structure implicated in habit formation, in rats successively trained on a reward-based procedural task, given extinction training and then given reacquisition training. The spike activity of striatal output neurons, nodal points in cortico-basal ganglia circuits, changed markedly across multiple dimensions during each of these phases of learning. First, new patterns of task-related ensemble firing successively formed, reversed and then re-emerged. Second, task-irrelevant firing was suppressed, then rebounded, and then was suppressed again. These changing spike activity patterns were highly correlated with changes in behavioural performance. We propose that these changes in task representation in cortico-basal ganglia circuits represent neural equivalents of the explore-exploit behaviour characteristic of habit learning.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Impairment of spatial learning and hippocampal synaptic potentiation in c-kit mutant rats.

The c-kit receptor tyrosine kinase encoded by the white-spotting (W) gene is highly expressed in rat hippocampal CA1-CA4 regions. We found an impaired spatial learning and memory in homozygous c-kit (Ws/Ws) mutant rats that have a 12-base deletion in the tyrosine kinase domain of the c-kit gene and a very low kinase activity. Electrophysiological studies in hippocampal slices revealed that the long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by the tetanic stimulation (100 Hz, 1 sec) in the mossy fiber (MF)-CA3 pathway, but not in the Schaffer collaterals/commissural-CA1 pathway, was significantly reduced in c-kit mutants compared with wild-type (+/+) rats. The paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) was measured before the tetanus and after the establishment of the LTP in each slice. The initial PPF in the MF-CA3 pathway positively correlated with the amplitude of the LTP in the wild-type rats but not in the c-kit mutant rats. Furthermore, they failed to show the normal characteristics observed in the MF-CA3 pathway of +/+ rats; that is, the negative correlation between the initial PPF and the changes in PPF measured after the LTP. These findings suggest an involvement of SCF/c-kit signaling in hippocampal synaptic potentiation and spatial learning and memory.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Effect of losartan and enalapril on cognitive deficit caused by Goldblatt induced hypertension.

The present study was designed to evaluate the learning and memory, in an altered physiological state associated with increased blood pressure and activated renin angiotensin system in Wistar rats. The role of angiotensin in cognitive function was assessed by treatment with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor enalapril (2 mg/kg), angiotensin 1 receptor (AT(1)) antagonist losartan (5 mg/kg) and their combination. The experimental renal hypertension was induced by the method of Goldblatt. Learning and memory was assessed using the radial arm maze test. Acetylcholine esterase (AChE) levels in the pons medulla, hippocampus, striatum and frontal cortex were measured as a cholinergic marker of learning and memory. Results indicate that in comparison to normotensive rats, renal hypertensive rats committed significantly higher number of errors and took more trials and days to learn the radial arm maze learning and exhibited memory deficit in the radial arm maze retrieval after two weeks of retention interval, indicating impaired acquisition and memory. Treatment with enalapril, losartan and their combination attenuated the observed memory deficits indicating a possible role of renin angiotensin system in cognitive function. AChE level was reduced in hippocampus and frontal cortex of renal hypertensive rats which could be attributed to the observed memory deficit in hypertensive rats. It can be concluded that, renal hypertensive rats had a poor acquisition, retrieval of the learned behavior, perhaps a possible disturbance in memory consolidation process and that this state was reversed with ACE inhibitor enalapril and AT 1 receptor antagonist losartan.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed2001

Correlation between hippocampal BDNF mRNA expression and memory performance in senescent rats.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been suggested to be involved in memory processes. In the present study, the association between memory impairment at senescence and BDNF expression in the hippocampus was studied in 30-32-month-old Brown Norway rats, which had been maternally deprived early in life. These animals display a bimodal distribution in their spatial learning ability: rats are either non-impaired or impaired. BDNF mRNA expression in the hippocampus was compared between non-impaired and impaired rats. We measured BDNF mRNA expression in the hippocampus 3 h after training in the Morris water maze ('post-training') and at 1 month after training ('basal'). Non-impaired performers displayed a higher post-training BDNF mRNA level in the CA1 region than impaired rats. In addition, only in the non-impaired performers post-training BDNF mRNA levels in CA1 and dentate gyrus were increased as compared to basal levels. Thus, we have demonstrated that in senescent rats, hippocampal BDNF expression in response to water maze training is associated with memory performance.

Aging↗
PubMed2004

Expression of dominant negative cadherin in the adult mouse brain modifies rearing behavior.

The cadherin superfamily of cell-cell adhesion molecules (CAM) are crucial regulators of morphogenesis and axonal guidance during development of the nervous system and have been suggested to play important roles in neural plasticity of the brain. To study the latter, we created a mouse model that expressed a dominant negative classical cadherin in the brain of adult mice. The mice were tested for spontaneous motor activity and exploratory behavior in the open field, anxiety in the plus-maze, and spatial learning and memory in the water-T maze. Mice expressing the dominant negative cadherin displayed reduced rearing behavior, but no change in motor activity, in the open field, indicating deficits in exploratory behavior. In the water maze, animals expressing the mutant cadherin showed normal escape latencies and were indistinguishable from control littermates. Similarly, LTP in hippocampal slices of cadherin mutant and control mice were indistinguishable. These findings demonstrate intact spatial learning in mice expressing a dominant negative cadherin but altered rearing behavior, suggesting the involvement of classical cadherins in mechanisms mediating rearing behavior.

Animals↗