MK-801 disrupts acquisition of contextual fear conditioning but enhances memory consolidation of cued fear conditioning

MK-801 attenuates one-trial tolerance in the elevated plus maze via the thalamic nucleus reuniens

Anxiety, a future-oriented negative emotional state, is characterized by heightened arousal and vigilance. The elevated plus maze (EPM) test is a widely used assay of anxiety-related behaviors in rodents and shows a phenomenon where animals with prior test experience tend to avoid open arms in retest sessions. While this one-trial tolerance (OTT) phenomenon limits the reuse of the EPM test, the potential mechanisms remain unsolved. Here, we found that neither anxiogenic factors like acute restraint stress nor anxiolytic factors like diazepam (2 mg/kg) influenced the emergence of the OTT phenomenon in mice in the EPM test. In contrast, OTT was markedly attenuated by MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg), a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist. Through the use of c-fos mapping, MK-801 was found to increase neuronal activation in the thalamic nucleus reuniens (Re). Moreover, chemogenetic inactivation of Re neurons could prevent the effects of MK-801. Our findings suggest the Re as a crucial brain region in emotional adaptation in the EPM and shed light on the experimental design optimization and mechanistic investigation of anxiety-related behaviors.

Cocaine diminishes consolidation of cued fear memory in female rats through interactions with ventral hippocampal D2 receptors

In addition to cocaine's addictive properties, cocaine use may lead to heightened risk-taking behavior. The disruptive effects of cocaine on aversive memory formation may underlie this behavior. The present study investigated the effects of cocaine on fear memory using a cued fear conditioning paradigm in female Sprague Dawley rats, and further determined the role of D2 receptors in modulating the effect of cocaine on cued fear expression. Animals received six evenly spaced shocks preceded by a tone. The following day, rats were returned to the fear chamber where tones, but no shocks, were delivered. In Experiment 1, separate or concurrent administrations of cocaine (15 mg/kg; i.p.) and the D2 receptor antagonist eticlopride (0.1 mg/kg; i.p.) were given immediately after conditioning trials. It was determined that cocaine administration during the consolidation period diminished the expression of cued fear during the subsequent test day. Concurrent eticlopride administration attenuated this effect, indicating the involvement of D2 receptors in the deleterious effects of cocaine on fear memory consolidation. In Experiment 2, eticlopride (0.05 μg) was infused directly into the ventral hippocampus (VH) after fear conditioning and before cocaine administration. Cocaine continued to disrupt consolidation of cued and contextual fear memory, and concurrent intra-VH eticlopride blocked this effect, thereby demonstrating that VH D2 receptors mediate cocaine-induced impairment of fear memory consolidation. Overall, the present study provides evidence that acute cocaine administration impairs aversive memory formation and establishes a potential circuit through which cocaine induces its detrimental effects on fear memory consolidation.

MK-801 and cognitive functions: Investigating the behavioral effects of a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist

RATIONALE

MK-801 (dizocilpine) is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist originally explored for anticonvulsant potential. Despite its original purpose, its amnestic properties led to the development of pivotal models of various cognitive impairments widely employed in research and greatly impacting scientific progress. MK-801 offers several advantages; however, it also presents drawbacks, including inducing dose-dependent hyperlocomotion or ambiguous effects on anxiety, which can impact the interpretation of behavioral research results.

OBJECTIVES

The present review attempts to summarize and discuss the effects of MK-801 on different types of memory and cognitive functions in animal studies.

RESULTS

A plethora of behavioral research suggests that MK-801 can detrimentally impact cognitive functions. The specific effect of this compound is influenced by variables including developmental stage, gender, species, strain, and, crucially, the administered dose. Notably, when considering the undesirable effects of MK-801, doses up to 0.1 mg/kg were found not to induce stereotypy or hyperlocomotion.

CONCLUSION

Dizocilpine continues to be of significant importance in preclinical research, facilitating the exploration of various procognitive therapeutic agents. However, given its potential undesirable effects, it is imperative to meticulously determine the appropriate dosages and conduct supplementary evaluations for any undesirable outcomes, which could complicate the interpretation of the findings.

On making (and turning adaptive to) maladaptive aversive memories in laboratory rodents

Fear conditioning and avoidance tasks usually elicit adaptive aversive memories. Traumatic memories are more intense, generalized, inflexible, and resistant to attenuation via extinction- and reconsolidation-based strategies. Inducing and assessing these dysfunctional, maladaptive features in the laboratory are crucial to interrogating posttraumatic stress disorder's neurobiology and exploring innovative treatments. Here we analyze over 350 studies addressing this question in adult rats and mice. There is a growing interest in modeling several qualitative and quantitative memory changes by exposing already stressed animals to freezing- and avoidance-related tests or using a relatively high aversive training magnitude. Other options combine aversive/fearful tasks with post-acquisition or post-retrieval administration of one or more drugs provoking neurochemical or epigenetic alterations reported in the trauma aftermath. It is potentially instructive to integrate these procedures and incorporate the measurement of autonomic and endocrine parameters. Factors to consider when defining the organismic and procedural variables, partially neglected aspects (sex-dependent differences and recent vs. remote data comparison) and suggestions for future research (identifying reliable individual risk and treatment-response predictors) are discussed.

Adult and adolescent C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice are differentially susceptible to fear learning deficits after acute ethanol or MK-801 treatment

Ethanol and other drugs of abuse disrupt learning and memory processes, creating problems associated with drug use and addiction. Understanding individual factors that determine susceptibility to drug-induced cognitive deficits, such as genetic background, age, and sex, is important for prevention and treatment. Comparison of adolescent and adult mice of both sexes across inbred mouse strains can reveal age, sex, and genetic contributions to phenotypes. We treated adolescent and adult, male and female, C57BL/6J and DBA/2J inbred mice with ethanol (1 g/kg or 1.5 g/kg) or MK-801 (0.05 mg/kg or 0.1 mg/kg), an NMDA receptor antagonist, prior to fear conditioning training. Contextual and cued fear retention were tested one day and eight or nine days after training. After ethanol exposure, adult C57BL/6J mice experienced greater deficits in contextual learning than adult DBA/2J mice. C57BL/6 J adolescents were less susceptible to ethanol-induced contextual learning disruptions than C57BL/6J adults, and adolescent males of both strains exhibited greater ethanol-induced contextual learning deficits than adolescent females. After MK-801 exposure, adolescent C57BL/6J mice experienced more severe contextual learning deficits than adolescent DBA/2J mice. Both ethanol and MK-801 had greater effects on contextual learning than cued learning. Collectively, we demonstrate that genetic background contributes to contextual and cued learning outcomes after ethanol or MK-801 exposure. Further, we report age-dependent drug sensitivities that are strain-, sex-, and drug-specific, suggesting that age, sex, and genetic background interact to determine contextual and cued learning impairments after ethanol or MK-801 exposure.

Retrograde and anterograde contextual fear amnesia induced by selective elimination of layer IV-Va neurons in the granular retrosplenial cortex (A29)

Differences in cytoarchitectural organization and connectivity distinguishes granular (or area 29, A29) and dysgranular (or area 30, A30) subdivisions of the retrosplenial cortex (RSC). Although increasing evidence supports the participation of RSC in contextual fear learning and memory, the contribution of each RSC subdivision remains unknown. Here we used orchiectomized rats and intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of saline (control) or 5 mg/kg MK801, to trigger selective degeneration of pyramidal neurons in layers IV-Va of A29 (A29^MK801 neurons). These treatments were applied 3 days before or two days after contextual fear conditioning, and contextual fear memory was evaluated by scoring freezing in the conditioned context five days after training. Afterwards, brains were fixed and c-Fos and Egr-1 expression were assessed as surrogates of neuronal activity elicited by the recall in A29, A30 and in limbic areas. We found that eliminating A29^MK801 neurons after training reduces conditioned freezing to 43.1 ± 9.9% respect to control rats. This was associated with a significant reduction of c-Fos and Egr-1 expression in A30, but not in other limbic areas. On the other hand, eliminating A29^MK801 neurons before training caused a mild but significant reduction of conditioned freezing to 79.7 ± 6.8%, which was associated to enhanced expression of c-Fos in A29, A30 and CA1 field of hippocampus, while Egr-1 expression in caudomedial (CEnt) entorhinal cortex was not depressed as in control animals. These observations show that severeness of amnesia differs according to whether A29^MK801 neurons were eliminated before or after conditioning, likely because loss of A29^MK801 neurons after conditioning disrupt memory engram while their elimination before training allow recruitment of other neurons in A29 for partial compensation of contextual fear learning and memory. These observations add further support for the critical role of A29^MK801 neurons in contextual fear learning and memory by connecting limbic structures with A30.

Inhaled Lavandula angustifolia essential oil inhibits consolidation of contextual- but not tone-fear conditioning in rats

Although the current treatment for anxiety is effective, it promotes a number of adverse reactions and medical interactions. Inhaled essential oils have a prominent action on the central nervous system, with minimal systemic effects, primarily because of reduced systemic bioavailability. The effects of drugs on the consolidation of fear conditioning reflects its clinical efficacy in preventing a vicious cycle of anticipatory anxiety leading to fearful cognition and anxiety symptoms. In this study, we investigated the effects of inhaled Lavandula angustifolia essential oil on the consolidation of aversive memories and its influence on c-Fos expression. Adult male Wistar rats were subjected to a fear conditioning protocol. Immediately after the training session, the rats were exposed to vaporized water or essential oil (1%, 2.5% and 5% solutions) for 4h. The next day, the rats underwent contextual- or tone-fear tests and 90min after the test they were euthanized and their brains processed for c-Fos immunohistochemistry. In the contextual-fear test, essential oil at 2.5% and 5% (but not 1%) reduced the freezing response and its respective c-Fos expression in the ventral hippocampus and amygdala. In the tone-fear test, essential oil did not reduce the freezing response during tone presentation. However, rats that inhaled essential oil at 2.5% and 5% (but not 1%) showed decreased freezing in the three minutes after tone presentation, as well as reduced c-Fos expression in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. These results show that the inhalation of L. angustifolia essential oil inhibited the consolidation of contextual- but not tone-fear conditioning and had an anxiolytic effect in a conditioned animal model of anxiety.

An examination of the roles of glutamate and sex in latent inhibition: Relevance to the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia?

The present study examined the effects of the glutamate receptor antagonist MK-801, the glutamate receptor agonist N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), and sexual dimorphism on latent inhibition to elucidate the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. During the pre-exposure phase, 56 male and 65 female Wistar rats were intracerebroventricularly administered normal saline, MK-801 or NMDA, in the left ventricle and then exposed to a passive avoidance box (or a different context) in three trials over 3 days. Then, all of the rats were placed in the light compartment of the passive avoidance box and were allowed to enter the dark compartment, where they each received a footshock (1mA, 2s) in five trials over 5 days. Injections of the glutamate drugs NMDA and MK-801 did not affect latent inhibition. Sexual dimorphism did not occur in latent inhibition. The present data on the male rats indicated that the glutamate system did not affect latent inhibition, indicating that the glutamate system was not like the dopamine system in terms of mediating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. The glutamate system might be involved in the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. The results may provide information for novel treatments of the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Sustained relief of ongoing experimental neuropathic pain by a CRMP2 peptide aptamer with low abuse potential

Uncoupling the protein-protein interaction between collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP2) and N-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CaV2.2) with an allosteric CRMP2-derived peptide (CBD3) is antinociceptive in rodent models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. We investigated the efficacy, duration of action, abuse potential, and neurobehavioral toxicity of an improved mutant CRMP2 peptide. A homopolyarginine (R9)-conjugated CBD3-A6K (R9-CBD3-A6K) peptide inhibited the CaV2.2-CRMP2 interaction in a concentration-dependent fashion and diminished surface expression of CaV2.2 and depolarization-evoked Ca influx in rat dorsal root ganglia neurons. In vitro studies demonstrated suppression of excitability of small-to-medium diameter dorsal root ganglion and inhibition of subtypes of voltage-gated Ca channels. Sprague-Dawley rats with tibial nerve injury had profound and long-lasting tactile allodynia and ongoing pain. Immediate administration of R9-CBD3-A6K produced enhanced dopamine release from the nucleus accumbens shell selectively in injured animals, consistent with relief of ongoing pain. R9-CBD3-A6K, when administered repeatedly into the central nervous system ventricles of naive rats, did not result in a positive conditioned place preference demonstrating a lack of abusive liability. Continuous subcutaneous infusion of R9-CBD3-A6K over a 24- to 72-hour period reversed tactile allodynia and ongoing pain, demonstrating a lack of tolerance over this time course. Importantly, continuous infusion of R9-CBD3-A6K did not affect motor activity, anxiety, depression, or memory and learning. Collectively, these results validate the potential therapeutic significance of targeting the CaV-CRMP2 axis for treatment of neuropathic pain.

Effects of an acute seizure on associative learning and memory

Past studies have demonstrated that inducing several seizures or continuous seizures in neonatal or adult rats results in impairments in learning and memory. The impact of a single acute seizure on learning and memory has not been investigated in mice. In this study, we exposed adult 129SvEvTac mice to the inhalant flurothyl until a behavioral seizure was induced. Our study consisted of 4 experiments where we examined the effect of one seizure before or after delay fear conditioning. We also included a separate cohort of animals that was tested in the open field after a seizure to rule out changes in locomotor activity influencing the results of memory tests. Mice that had experienced a single seizure 1h, but not 6h, prior to training showed a significant impairment in associative conditioning to the conditioned stimulus when compared with controls 24h later. There were no differences in freezing one day later for animals that experienced a single seizure 1h after associative learning. We also found that an acute seizure reduced activity levels in an open-field test 2h but not 24h later. These findings suggest that an acute seizure occurring immediately before learning can have an effect on the recall of events occurring shortly after that seizure. In contrast, an acute seizure occurring shortly after learning appears to have little or no effect on long-term memory. These findings have implications for understanding the acute effects of seizures on the acquisition of new knowledge.

Thyroid hormone signaling: Contribution to neural function, cognition, and relationship to nicotine

Cigarette smoking is common despite its adverse effects on health, such as cardiovascular disease and stroke. Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the addictive properties of nicotine makes it possible to target them to prevent the initiation of smoking behavior and/or increase the chance of successful quit attempts. While highly addictive, nicotine is not generally considered to be as reinforcing as other drugs of abuse. There are likely other mechanisms at work that contribute to the addictive liability of nicotine. Nicotine modulates aspects of the endocrine system, including the thyroid, which is critical for normal cognitive functioning. It is possible that nicotine's effects on thyroid function may alter learning and memory, and this may underlie some of its addictive potential. Here, we review the literature on thyroid function and cognition, with a focus on how nicotine alters thyroid hormone signaling and the potential impact on cognition. Changes in cognition are a major symptom of nicotine addiction. Current anti-smoking therapies have modest success at best. If some of the cognitive effects of nicotine are mediated through the thyroid hormone system, then thyroid hormone agonists may be novel treatments for smoking cessation therapies. The content of this review is important because it clarifies the relationship between smoking and thyroid function, which has been ill-defined in the past. This review is timely because the reduction in smoking rates we have seen in recent decades, due to public awareness campaigns and public smoking bans, has leveled off in recent years. Therefore, novel treatment approaches are needed to help reduce smoking rates further.

Neurological sequelae induced by alphavirus infection of the CNS are attenuated by treatment with the glutamine antagonist 6-diazo-5-oxo-l-norleucine

Recovery from encephalomyelitis induced by infection with mosquito-borne alphaviruses is associated with a high risk of lifelong debilitating neurological deficits. Infection of mice with the prototypic alphavirus, Sindbis virus, provides an animal model with which to study disease mechanisms and examine potential therapeutics. Infectious virus is cleared from the brain within a week after infection, but viral RNA is cleared slowly and persists for the life of the animal. However, no studies have examined the effect of infection on neurocognitive function over time. In the present study, we examined neurocognitive function at different phases of infection in 5-week-old C57BL/6 mice intranasally inoculated with Sindbis virus. At the peak of active virus infection, mice demonstrated hyperactivity, decreased anxiety, and marked hippocampal-dependent memory deficits, the latter of which persisted beyond clearance of infectious virus and resolution of clinical signs of disease. Previous studies indicate that neuronal damage during alphavirus encephalomyelitis is primarily due to inflammatory cell infiltration and glutamate excitotoxicity rather than directly by virus infection. Therefore, mice were treated with 6-diazo-5-oxo-l-norleucine (DON), a glutamine antagonist that can suppress both the immune response and excitotoxicity. Treatment with DON decreased inflammatory cell infiltration and cell death in the hippocampus and partially prevented development of clinical signs and neurocognitive impairment despite the presence of infectious virus and high viral RNA levels. This study presents the first report of neurocognitive sequelae in mice with alphavirus encephalomyelitis and provides a model system for further elucidation of the pathogenesis of virus infection and assessment of potential therapies.

Reduction in Responding for Sucrose and Cocaine Reinforcement by Disruption of Memory Reconsolidation

Stored memories are dynamic and, when reactivated, can undergo a process of destabilization and reconsolidation to update them with new information. Reconsolidation has been shown for a variety of experimental settings; most recently for well-learned instrumental memories, a class of memory previously thought not to undergo reconsolidation. Here we tested, in rats, whether a weakly-trained lever-pressing memory destabilized following a shift in reinforcement contingency. We show that lever-pressing memory for both sucrose and cocaine reinforcement destabilized under appropriate conditions, and that the reconsolidation of this memory was impaired by systemic administration of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist [5R,10S]-[+]-5-methyl-10,1-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine (MK-801). We went on to investigate the potential role of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the reconsolidation of sucrose-reinforced instrumental memories, showing that co-infusion of the NMDAR antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (AP-5) and the dopamine-1 receptor (D1R) antagonist 7-chloro-3-methyl-1-phenyl-1,2,4,5-tetrahydro-3-benzazepin-8-ol (SCH23390) into the NAc prior to memory reactivation impaired reconsolidation; however, there was no effect when these drugs were infused alone. Further investigation of this effect suggests the combined infusion disrupted the reconsolidation of pavlovian components of memory, and we hypothesize that coactivation of accumbal D1Rs and NMDARs may contribute to both the destabilization and reconsolidation of appetitive memory. Our work demonstrates that weakly-trained instrumental memories undergo reconsolidation under similar parameters to well-trained ones, and also suggests that receptor coactivation in the NAc may contribute to memory destabilization. Furthermore, it provides an important demonstration of the therapeutic potential of reconsolidation-based treatments that target the instrumental components of memory in maladaptive drug seeking.

Brief fear preexposure facilitates subsequent fear conditioning

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that occurs following an unexpected exposure to a severe psychological event. A history of a brief trauma is reported to affect a risk for future PTSD development; however, little is known about the mechanisms by which a previous trauma exposure drives the sensitivity to a late-coming trauma. Using a mouse PTSD model, we found that a prior foot shock enhances contextual fear conditioning. This shock-induced facilitation of fear conditioning (i.e., priming effect) persisted for 7 days and was prevented by MK801, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist. Other types of trauma, such as forced swimming or tail pinch, did not induce a priming effect on fear conditioning. Thus, a trauma is unlikely generalized to modify the sensitivity to other traumatic experiences. The behavioral procedure employed in this study may be a useful tool to elucidate the etiology of PTSD.

Nicotinic receptors, memory, and hippocampus

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) modulate the neurobiological processes underlying hippocampal learning and memory. In addition, nicotine's ability to desensitize and upregulate certain nAChRs may alter hippocampus-dependent memory processes. Numerous studies have examined the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning, as well as the roles of low- and high-affinity nAChRs in mediating nicotine's effects on hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. These studies suggested that while acute nicotine generally acts as a cognitive enhancer for hippocampus-dependent learning, withdrawal from chronic nicotine results in deficits in hippocampus-dependent memory. Furthermore, these studies demonstrated that low- and high-affinity nAChRs functionally differ in their involvement in nicotine's effects on hippocampus-dependent learning. In the present chapter, we reviewed studies using systemic or local injections of acute or chronic nicotine, nAChR subunit agonists or antagonists; genetically modified mice; and molecular biological techniques to characterize the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning.

Selective activation of M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors reverses MK-801-induced behavioral impairments and enhances associative learning in rodents

Positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of the M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) represent a novel approach for the treatment of psychotic symptoms associated with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We recently reported that the selective M4 PAM VU0152100 produced an antipsychotic drug-like profile in rodents after amphetamine challenge. Previous studies suggest that enhanced cholinergic activity may also improve cognitive function and reverse deficits observed with reduced signaling through the N-methyl-d-aspartate subtype of the glutamate receptor (NMDAR) in the central nervous system. Prior to this study, the M1 mAChR subtype was viewed as the primary candidate for these actions relative to the other mAChR subtypes. Here we describe the discovery of a novel M4 PAM, VU0467154, with enhanced in vitro potency and improved pharmacokinetic properties relative to other M4 PAMs, enabling a more extensive characterization of M4 actions in rodent models. We used VU0467154 to test the hypothesis that selective potentiation of M4 receptor signaling could ameliorate the behavioral, cognitive, and neurochemical impairments induced by the noncompetitive NMDAR antagonist MK-801. VU0467154 produced a robust dose-dependent reversal of MK-801-induced hyperlocomotion and deficits in preclinical models of associative learning and memory functions, including the touchscreen pairwise visual discrimination task in wild-type mice, but failed to reverse these stimulant-induced deficits in M4 KO mice. VU0467154 also enhanced the acquisition of both contextual and cue-mediated fear conditioning when administered alone in wild-type mice. These novel findings suggest that M4 PAMs may provide a strategy for addressing the more complex affective and cognitive disruptions associated with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and protein synthesis are necessary for reinstatement of conditioned fear

Conditioned fear is extinguished if a conditioned animal receives the conditioned stimulus without an unconditioned stimulus. The extinguished fear response can be reinstated after the animal experiences a mild unconditioned stimulus. Although extensive studies on the neuronal circuitry and neurochemical mechanisms leading to fear acquisition and extinction have been carried out, few studies have focused on reinstatement. In this study, we investigated the effects of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) antagonists, protein synthesis inhibitors, cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) antagonists, and benzodiazepine on reinstatement of conditioned fear in mice. An intraperitoneal injection of the NMDAR antagonist MK-801 or the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin before the reminder shock attenuated fear reinstatement tested the next day. However, anisomycin had no effect on fear reinstatement tested 2 h after the reminder shock. CB1R antagonists, SR141716, and a benzodiazepine, diazepam, had no effect on fear reinstatement. These results suggested that NMDAR and protein synthesis-dependent plasticity contributed toward the reinstatement of conditioned fear and that protein synthesis was involved in consolidation of reinstated fear.

Cellular, molecular, and genetic substrates underlying the impact of nicotine on learning

Addiction is a chronic disorder marked by long-lasting maladaptive changes in behavior and in reward system function. However, the factors that contribute to the behavioral and biological changes that occur with addiction are complex and go beyond reward. Addiction involves changes in cognitive control and the development of disruptive drug-stimuli associations that can drive behavior. A reason for the strong influence drugs of abuse can exert on cognition may be the striking overlap between the neurobiological substrates of addiction and of learning and memory, especially areas involved in declarative memory. Declarative memories are critically involved in the formation of autobiographical memories, and the ability of drugs of abuse to alter these memories could be particularly detrimental. A key structure in this memory system is the hippocampus, which is critically involved in binding multimodal stimuli together to form complex long-term memories. While all drugs of abuse can alter hippocampal function, this review focuses on nicotine. Addiction to tobacco products is insidious, with the majority of smokers wanting to quit; yet the majority of those that attempt to quit fail. Nicotine addiction is associated with the presence of drug-context and drug-cue associations that trigger drug seeking behavior and altered cognition during periods of abstinence, which contributes to relapse. This suggests that understanding the effects of nicotine on learning and memory will advance understanding and potentially facilitate treating nicotine addiction. The following sections examine: (1) how the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning change as nicotine administration transitions from acute to chronic and then to withdrawal from chronic treatment and the potential impact of these changes on addiction, (2) how nicotine usurps the cellular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, (3) the physiological changes in the hippocampus that may contribute to nicotine withdrawal deficits in learning, and (4) the role of genetics and developmental stage (i.e., adolescence) in these effects.

Gadd45b knockout mice exhibit selective deficits in hippocampus-dependent long-term memory

Growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible β (Gadd45b) has been shown to be involved in DNA demethylation and may be important for cognitive processes. Gadd45b is abnormally expressed in subjects with autism and psychosis, two disorders associated with cognitive deficits. Furthermore, several high-throughput screens have identified Gadd45b as a candidate plasticity-related gene. However, a direct demonstration of a link between Gadd45b and memory has not been established. The current studies first determined whether expression of the Gadd45 family of genes was affected by contextual fear conditioning. Gadd45b, and to a lesser extent Gadd45g, were up-regulated in the hippocampus following contextual fear conditioning, whereas Gadd45a was not. Next, Gadd45b knockout mice were tested for contextual and cued fear conditioning. Gadd45b knockout mice exhibited a significant deficit in long-term contextual fear conditioning; however, they displayed normal levels of short-term contextual fear conditioning. No differences between Gadd45b knockout and wild-type mice were observed in cued fear conditioning. Because cued fear conditioning is hippocampus independent, while contextual fear conditioning is hippocampus dependent, the current studies suggest that Gadd45b may be important for long-term hippocampus-dependent memory storage. Therefore, Gadd45b may be a novel therapeutic target for the cognitive deficits associated with many neurodevelopmental, neurological, and psychiatric disorders.

Effect of the NMDA antagonist MK-801 on latent inhibition of fear conditioning

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors seem to play a central role in learning and memory processes involved in Latent Inhibition (LI). In fact, MK-801, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, has proved its effectiveness as a drug for attenuating LI when administered before or after stimulus preexposure and conditioning stages. This paper presents three experiments designed to analyze the effect of MK-801 on LI when the drug is administered before (Experiment 1A) or after (Experiment 1B) preexposure and conditioning stages with a conditioned emotional response procedure. Additionally, we analyze the effect of the drug when it was administered before preexposure, before conditioning or before both phases (Experiment 2). The results show that the effect of the drug varied as a function of the dose (with only the highest dose being effective), the moment of administration (with only the drug administered before the experimental treatments being effective), and the phase of procedure (reducing LI when the drug was administered only at preexposure, and disrupting fear conditioning when administered at conditioning). These differences may be due to several factors ranging from the role played by NMDA receptors in the processing of stimuli of different sensorial modalities to the molecular processes triggered by drug administration.

ERK activation in the amygdala and hippocampus induced by fear conditioning in ethanol withdrawn rats: modulation by MK-801

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway, which can be activated by NMDA receptor stimulation, is involved in fear conditioning and drug addiction. We have previously shown that withdrawal from chronic ethanol administration facilitated the formation of contextual fear memory. In order to explore the neural substrates and the potential mechanism involved in this effect, we examined: 1) the ERK1/2 activation in the central (CeA) and basolateral (BLA) nuclei of the amygdala and in the dorsal hippocampus (dHip), 2) the effect of the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 on fear conditioning and ERK activation and 3) the effect of the infusion of U0126, a MEK inhibitor, into the BLA on fear memory formation in ethanol withdrawn rats. Rats made dependent via an ethanol-containing liquid diet were subjected to contextual fear conditioning on day 3 of ethanol withdrawal. High basal levels of p-ERK were found in CeA and dHip from ethanol withdrawn rats. ERK activation was significantly increased both in control (60min) and ethanol withdrawn rats (30 and 60min) in BLA after fear conditioning. Pre-training administration of MK-801, at a dose that had no effect on control rats, prevented the increase in ERK phosphorylation in BLA and attenuated the freezing response 24h later in ethanol withdrawn rats. Furthermore, the infusion of U0126 into the BLA, but not the CeA, before fear conditioning disrupted fear memory formation. These results suggest that the increased fear memory can be linked to changes in ERK phosphorylation, probably due to NMDA receptor activation in BLA in ethanol withdrawn rats.

Blockade of NMDA GluN2B receptors selectively impairs behavioral flexibility but not initial discrimination learning

RATIONALE

Behavioral flexibility is the ability to adjust behavior when environmental contingencies change and is compromised in disease states such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and following damage to the prefrontal cortex.

METHODS

The present study investigated the contribution of N-methyl-D-aspartate GluN2B receptor subunits in the initial learning and in shifting between or within discrimination strategies (i.e., strategy set-shifting and reversal learning), using tasks conducted in operant chambers. Strategy set-shifting required rats initially to learn a visual-cue discrimination (day 1) and on day 2, shift to using an egocentric spatial response strategy to obtain reward. For reversal learning, rats were trained on a response discrimination on day 1 and then required to select the opposite lever on day 2.

RESULTS

Blockade of GluN2B receptors with systemic administration of Ro25-6981 on day 1 did not impair initial acquisition of either a response or visual-cue discrimination nor did these treatments affect performance of strategy or reversal shifts on day 2. However, administration of Ro25-6981 prior to a set-shift or reversal on day 2 significantly impaired performance on both tasks, inducing a selective increase in perseverative errors, indicative of a disruption the ability to suppress a previously acquired prepotent response.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that systemic blockade of GluN2B receptors Ro25-6981 does not appear to interfere with the initial acquisition of simple visual or response discriminations. However, these receptors do appear to play a central and selective role in the modification of previously acquired strategies or stimulus-reward associations, facilitating behavioral inhibition so that novel patterns of behavior may emerge.

Positive emotional learning is regulated in the medial prefrontal cortex by GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors

In rats, hedonic ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) is a validated model of positive affect and is best elicited by rough-and-tumble play. Here we report that modulation of GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors (NMDAR) in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is involved in positive emotional learning. Rough and tumble play increased both GluN1 and GluN2B NMDAR subunit mRNA and protein levels in the frontal cortex. GLYX-13, a GluN2B-preferring, NMDAR glycine-site partial agonist (1 mg/kg, i.v.) significantly increased positive emotional learning whereas the GluN2B receptor-specific antagonist, ifenprodil (10 mg/kg, i.p.), inhibited positive emotional learning. Animals selectively bred for low rates of hedonic USVs were returned to wild-type levels of positive emotional learning following GLYX-13 treatment. MPFC microinjections of GLYX-13 (0.1-10 μg/side) significantly increased rates of positive emotional learning. Thus GluN2B-containing NMDARs may be involved in positive emotional learning in the MPFC by similar mechanisms as spatial/temporal learning in the hippocampus.

Associative learning performance is impaired in zebrafish (Danio rerio) by the NMDA-R antagonist MK-801

The zebrafish is gaining popularity in behavioral neuroscience perhaps because of a promise of efficient large scale mutagenesis and drug screens that could identify a substantial number of yet undiscovered molecular players involved in complex traits. Learning and memory are complex functions of the brain and the analysis of their mechanisms may benefit from such large scale zebrafish screens. One bottleneck in this research is the paucity of appropriate behavioral screening paradigms, which may be due to the relatively uncharacterized nature of the behavior of this species. Here we show that zebrafish exhibit good learning performance in a task adapted from the mammalian literature, a plus maze in which zebrafish are required to associate a neutral visual stimulus with the presence of conspecifics, the rewarding unconditioned stimulus. Furthermore, we show that MK-801, a non-competitive NMDA-R antagonist, impairs memory performance in this maze when administered right after training or just before recall but not when given before training at a dose that does not impair motor function, perception or motivation. These results suggest that the plus maze associative learning paradigm has face and construct validity and that zebrafish may become an appropriate and translationally relevant study species for the analysis of the mechanisms of vertebrate, including mammalian, learning and memory.

Nicotine ameliorates NMDA receptor antagonist-induced deficits in contextual fear conditioning through high-affinity nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the hippocampus

NMDA glutamate receptors (NMDARs) and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are both involved in learning and synaptic plasticity. Increasing evidence suggests processes mediated by these receptors may interact to modulate learning; however, little is known about the neural substrates involved in these interactive processes. The present studies investigated the effects of nicotine on MK-801 hydrogen maleate (MK-801) and DL-2-Amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV)-induced disruption of contextual fear conditioning in male C57BL/6J mice, using direct drug infusion and selective nAChR antagonists to define the brain regions and the nAChR subtypes involved. Mice treated with MK-801 showed a deficit in contextual fear conditioning that was ameliorated by nicotine. Direct drug infusion demonstrated that the NMDAR antagonists disrupted hippocampal function and that nicotine acted in the dorsal hippocampus to ameliorate the deficit in learning. The high-affinity nAChR antagonist Dihydro-β-erythroidine hydrobromide (DhβE) blocked the effects of nicotine on MK-801-induced deficits while the α7 nAChR antagonist methyllycaconitine citrate salt hydrate (MLA) did not. These results suggest that NMDARs and nAChRs may mediate similar hippocampal processes involved in contextual fear conditioning. Furthermore, these results may have implications for developing effective therapeutics for the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia because a large subset of patients with schizophrenia exhibit cognitive deficits that may be related to NMDAR dysfunction and smoke at much higher rates than the healthy population, which may be an attempt to ameliorate cognitive deficits.

Nicotine enhances contextual fear memory reconsolidation in rats

There is increasing evidence that nicotine is involved in learning and memory. However, there remains no study that has explored the relationship between nicotine and memory reconsolidation. At present study, we tested the effects of nicotine on the reconsolidation of contextual fear memory in rats. Behavior procedure involved four training phases: habituation (Day 0), fear conditioning (Day 1), reactivation (Day 2) and test (Day 3). Rats were injected saline or nicotine (0.25, 0.5 and 1.0mg/kg) immediately after reactivation. Percent of time spent freezing was used to measure conditioned fear response. Results showed that compared with saline rats, rats with nicotine at 1.0mg/kg presented a significant increase of freezing response on Day 3. Nicotine at 1.0mg/kg was ineffective when injected 6h after reactivation. Further results showed that the enhancement of freezing response induced by nicotine at 1.0mg/kg was dependent on fear memory reconsolidation, and was not attributed to an enhancement of the nonspecific freezing response 24h after nicotine administration. The results suggest that nicotine administration immediately after reactivation enhances contextual fear memory reconsolidation. Our present finding extends previous research on the nicotinic effects on learning and memory.

Functional imaging of stimulus convergence in amygdalar neurons during Pavlovian fear conditioning

Background

Associative conditioning is a ubiquitous form of learning throughout the animal kingdom and fear conditioning is one of the most widely researched models for studying its neurobiological basis. Fear conditioning is also considered a model system for understanding phobias and anxiety disorders. A fundamental issue in fear conditioning regards the existence and location of neurons in the brain that receive convergent information about the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) during the acquisition of conditioned fear memory. Convergent activation of neurons is generally viewed as a key event for fear learning, yet there has been almost no direct evidence of this critical event in the mammalian brain.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here, we used Arc cellular compartmental analysis of temporal gene transcription by fluorescence in situ hybridization (catFISH) to identify neurons activated during single trial contextual fear conditioning in rats. To conform to temporal requirements of catFISH analysis we used a novel delayed contextual fear conditioning protocol which yields significant single- trial fear conditioning with temporal parameters amenable to catFISH analysis. Analysis yielded clear evidence that a population of BLA neurons receives convergent CS and US information at the time of the learning, that this only occurs when the CS-US arrangement is supportive of the learning, and that this process requires N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activation. In contrast, CS-US convergence was not observed in dorsal hippocampus.

Conclusions/Significance

Based on the pattern of Arc activation seen in conditioning and control groups, we propose that a key requirement for CS-US convergence onto BLA neurons is the potentiation of US responding by prior exposure to a novel CS. Our results also support the view that contextual fear memories are encoded in the amygdala and that the role of dorsal hippocampus is to process and transmit contextual CS information.

Activation of nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptor impairs contextual fear learning in mice through glutamatergic mechanisms

The present study investigated whether the selective nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptor agonist, Ro64-6198, impairs acquisition of fear conditioning through glutamatergic mechanisms. Systemic administration of Ro64-6198 (0.3 and 1mg/kg) or the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801 (0.03 and 0.1mg/kg) prior to conditioning severely impaired contextual but not cued fear learning in C57BL/6N mice. When administered together at sub-effective doses, Ro64-6198 (0.5mg/kg) and MK-801 (0.05mg/kg), synergistically impaired contextual fear learning, but left cued fear learning intact. We next used the immediate shock deficit paradigm (ISD) to examine the effects of Ro64-6198 and MK-801 on contextual memory formation in the absence of the foot-shock. As expected, naive mice that were shocked briefly after being placed in the training chamber displayed no contextual fear conditioning. This learning deficit was elevated by prior exposure of mice to the training context. Furthermore, administration of Ro64-6198 and MK-801, either separately at amnesic doses (1mg/kg and 0.1mg/kg, respectively) or concomitantly at sub-effective doses (0.5mg/kg and 0.05mg/kg, respectively) significantly reduced the facilitating effects of context preexposure. These findings demonstrate the existence of functional antagonism between NOP and NMDA receptors that predominantly contributes to modulation of conditioned fear learning which involves spatial-processing demands.

The NMDA agonist D-cycloserine facilitates fear memory consolidation in humans

Animal research suggests that the consolidation of fear and extinction memories depends on N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptors. Using a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm in healthy normal volunteers, we show that postlearning administration of the NMDA partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) facilitates fear memory consolidation, evidenced behaviorally by enhanced skin conductance responses, relative to placebo, for presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) at a memory test performed 72 h later. DCS also enhanced CS-evoked neural responses in a posterior hippocampus/collateral sulcus region and in the medial prefrontal cortex at test. Our data suggest a role for NMDA receptors in regulating fear memory consolidation in humans.

Modulation of hippocampus-dependent learning and synaptic plasticity by nicotine

A long-standing relationship between nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and cognition exists. Drugs that act at nAChRs can have cognitive-enhancing effects and diseases that disrupt cognition such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia are associated with altered nAChR function. Specifically, hippocampus-dependent learning is particularly sensitive to the effects of nicotine. However, the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning vary not only with the doses of nicotine used and whether nicotine is administered acutely, chronically, or withdrawn after chronic nicotine treatment but also vary across different hippocampus-dependent tasks such as the Morris water maze, the radial arm maze, and contextual fear conditioning. In addition, nicotine has variable effects across different types of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). Because different types of hippocampus-dependent learning and LTP involve different neural and molecular substrates, comparing the effects of nicotine across these paradigms can yield insights into the mechanisms that may underlie the effects of nicotine on learning and memory and aid in understanding the variable effects of nicotine on cognitive processes. This review compares and contrasts the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning and LTP and briefly discusses how the effects of nicotine on learning could contribute to nicotine addiction.

Interaction between glutamatergic-NMDA and cholinergic-muscarinic systems in classical fear conditioning

A number of studies have suggested that the glutamatergic and cholinergic systems are both involved in learning and memory processes and that they interact in order to facilitate these processes. However, the role of M1-muscarinic receptors in mediating this interaction has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to determine whether the concomitant administration of MK-801 (non-competitive NMDA antagonist) and dicyclomine (M1-muscarinic antagonist--DIC) in sub-effective doses impairs contextual fear conditioning (hippocampal-dependent task) and tone fear conditioning tasks (hippocampal-independent task). The results showed that concomitant pre-training administration of DIC (8.0 mg/kg) and MK-801 (0.07 mg/kg)--two sub-effectives doses for the contextual fear conditioning task--does impair the performance of animals on this task (as measured by freezing behavior time). Tone fear conditioning tasks were not affected by the drugs either administered separately or concurrently. The pre-training administration of sub-effective doses of MK-801 and DIC in combination impairs performance on contextual fear conditioning task (hippocampal-dependent), but not on tone fear conditioning task (hippocampal-independent). These data support the hypothesis that the interaction between glutamatergic and cholinergic systems in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory processes probably occurs through M1 receptor.

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 involvement in the enhancement of contextual fear conditioning by nicotine

Contextual fear conditioning is enhanced by nicotine, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect are unknown. Extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK 1/2) has been shown to play an integral role in the formation of contextual fear memories. As such, it is possible that ERK 1/2 is involved in the enhancement of contextual fear conditioning by nicotine. To determine whether ERK 1/2 plays a role in this enhancement, a dose of SL327 (a selective, systemic ERK 1/2 inhibitor) that is subthreshold for inhibiting contextual fear conditioning was coadministered with nicotine prior to training, testing, or both training and testing of contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice. When administered prior to training, this subthreshold dose of SL327 attenuated the enhancement of contextual fear conditioning by nicotine to levels similar to those of vehicle-treated animals. When administered prior to testing, the subthreshold dose of SL327 did not significantly alter conditioning. These results suggest that activation of ERK 1/2 by nicotine during acquisition leads to an enhancement of contextual fear conditioning.

Acute ethanol has biphasic effects on short- and long-term memory in both foreground and background contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice

BACKGROUND

Ethanol is a frequently abused, addictive drug that impairs cognitive function. Ethanol may disrupt cognitive processes by altering attention, short-term memory, and/or long-term memory. Interestingly, some research suggests that ethanol may enhance cognitive processes at lower doses. The current research examined the dose-dependent effects of ethanol on contextual and cued fear conditioning. In addition, the present studies assessed the importance of stimulus salience in the effects of ethanol and directly compared the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory.

METHODS

This study employed both foreground and background fear conditioning, which differ in the salience of contextual stimuli, and tested conditioning at 4 hours, 24 hours, and 1 week in order to assess the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory. Foreground conditioning consisted of 2 presentations of a foot shock unconditioned stimulus (US) (2 seconds, 0.57 mA). Background conditioning consisted of 2 auditory conditioned stimulus (30 seconds, 85 dB white noise)-foot shock (US; 2 seconds, 0.57 mA) pairings.

RESULTS

For both foreground and background conditioning, ethanol enhanced short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a low dose (0.25 g/kg) and impaired short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a high dose (1.0 g/kg).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that ethanol has long-lasting, biphasic effects on short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning. Furthermore, the effects of ethanol on contextual fear conditioning are independent of the salience of the context.

Nicotine and hippocampus-dependent learning: implications for addiction

Addiction is a complex disorder because many factors contribute to the development and maintenance of addiction. One factor is learning. For example, drug-context associations that develop during drug use could facilitate drug craving upon re-exposure to contexts previously associated with drugs. Additionally, deficits in cognitive processes associated with withdrawal could precipitate relapse in attempts to ameliorate those deficits. Because addiction and learning involve common neural areas and cell signaling cascades, addiction-related changes in processes underlying plasticity may contribute to addiction. This article examines similarities between addiction and learning at the behavioral, neural, and cellular levels, with emphasis on the neural substrates underlying the effects of acute nicotine, chronic nicotine, and withdrawal from chronic nicotine on hippocampus-dependent contextual learning.

NMDA receptor antagonism impairs reversal learning in developing rats

Four experiments examined the effect of dizocilpine maleate (MK-801), a noncompetitive N-methyl-Daspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, on reversal learning during development. On postnatal days (PND) 21, 26, or 30, rats were trained on spatial discrimination and reversal in a T-maze. When MK-801 was administered (intraperitoneally) before both acquisition and reversal, 0.18 mg/kg generally impaired performance, whereas doses of 0.06 mg/kg and 0.10 mg/kg, but not 0.03 mg/kg, selectively impaired reversal learning (Experiments 1 and 3). The selective effect on reversal was not a result of sensitization to the second dose of MK-801 (Experiment 2) and was observed when the drug was administered only during reversal in an experiment addressing state-dependent learning (Experiment 4). Spatial reversal learning is more sensitive to NMDA-receptor antagonism than is acquisition. No age differences in sensitivity to MK-801 were found between PND 21 and 30.

Impaired attentional modulation of auditory evoked potentials in N-methyl-D-aspartate NR1 hypomorphic mice

In human neurophysiology, auditory event-related potentials (AEPs) are used to investigate cognitive processes such as selective attention. Selective attention to specific tones causes a negative enhancement of AEPs known as processing negativity (PN), which is reduced in patients with schizophrenia. The evidence suggests that impaired selective attention in these patients may partially depend on deficient N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-mediated signaling. The goal of this study was to corroborate the involvement of the NMDAR in selective attention using a mouse model. To this end, we first investigated the presence of PN-like activity in C57BL/6J mice by recording AEPs during a fear-conditioning paradigm. Two alternating trains of tones, differing in stimulus duration, were presented on 7 subsequent days. One group received a mild foot shock delivered within the presentation of one train (conditioning train) on days 3-5 (conditioning days), while controls were never shocked. The fear-conditioned group (n= 9) indeed showed a PN-like activity during conditioning days manifested as a significant positive enhancement in the AEPs to the stimuli in the conditioning train that was not observed in the controls. The same paradigm was then applied to mice with reduced expression of the NMDAR1 (NR1) subunit and to a wild-type control group (each group n= 6). The NR1 mutants showed an associative AEP enhancement, but its magnitude was significantly reduced as compared with the magnitude in wild-type mice. We conclude that electrophysiological manifestations of selective attention are observable yet of different polarity in mice and that they require intact NMDAR-mediated signaling. Thus, deficient NMDAR functioning may contribute to abnormal selective attention in schizophrenia.

The role of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in acquisition and expression of contextual and auditory fear conditioning in rats - a comparison

Glutamatergic neurotransmission in the CNS plays a predominant role in learning and memory. While NMDA receptors have been extensively studied, less is known about the involvement of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in this area. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the contribution of mGluR1 and mGluR5 to both acquisition and expression of behaviours in contextual and auditory fear conditioning models. The effects of both receptor types were tested using selective antagonists: (3-ethyl-2-methyl-quinolin-6-yl)-(4-methoxy-cyclohexyl)-methanone methanesulfonate (EMQMCM) for mGluR1, and [(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]pyridine (MTEP) for mGluR5. Their effects on acquisition were compared to those of the NMDA receptor antagonist (+)MK-801, and the unselective muscarinic antagonist scopolamine, while diazepam and citalopram served as reference compounds in the expression experiments. EMQMCM (1.25 to 5mg/kg) impaired acquisition of contextual fear conditioning (CFC), but not auditory fear conditioning (AFC). Similarly, administration of MTEP during the acquisition phase impaired learning in CFC at doses of 2.5 to 10mg/kg, but was ineffective in AFC. When given before the retention test, both EMQMCM (1 and 3mg/kg) and MTEP (3mg/kg) impaired expression of CFC. In contrast, MTEP (2.5 and 5mg/kg) blocked the expression of AFC, while EMQMCM was ineffective. In conclusion, group I mGlu receptors are shown to be involved in the acquisition of hippocampus-dependent CFC, but not hippocampus-independent AFC. Unlike mGluR5, mGluR1 does not seem be involved in expression of AFC.

Functional interaction of NMDA and group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in negatively reinforced learning in rats

RATIONALE

The role of glutamatergic system in learning and memory has been extensively studied, and especially N-methyl-D: -aspartate (NMDA) receptors have been implicated in different learning and memory processes. Less is known, however, about group I metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors in this field. Recent studies indicated that the coactivation of both NMDA and group I mGlu receptors is required for the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and learning.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the study is to evaluate if there is a functional interaction between NMDA and group I mGlu receptors in two different models of aversive learning.

METHODS

Effects of NMDA, mGlu1, and mGlu5 receptor antagonists on acquisition were tested after systemic coadministration of selected ineffective doses in passive avoidance (PA) and fear-potentiated startle (FPS).

RESULTS

Interaction in aversive learning was investigated using selective antagonists: (3-ethyl-2-methyl-quinolin-6-yl)-(4-methoxy-cyclohexyl)-methanone methanesulfonate (EMQMCM) for mGlu1, [(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]pyridine (MTEP) for mGlu5, and (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzocyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate [(+)MK-801] for NMDA receptors. In PA, the coapplication of MTEP at a dose of 5 mg/kg and (+)MK-801 at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg 30 min before training impaired the acquisition tested 24 h later. Similarly, EMQMCM (2.5 mg/kg) plus (+)MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg), given during the acquisition phase, blocked the acquisition of the PA response. In contrast, neither the combination of MTEP (1.25 mg/kg) nor EMQMCM (5 mg/kg) plus (+)MK-801 (0.05 mg/kg) was effective on the acquisition assessed in the FPS paradigm.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest differences in the interaction of the NMDA and mGlu group I receptor types in aversive instrumental conditioning vs conditioning to a discrete light cue.

Post-training N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor blockade offers protection from retrograde interference but does not affect consolidation of weak or strong memory traces in the water maze

Memory consolidation is the process where labile memory traces become long-lasting, stable memories. Previous work has demonstrated that spatial memory consolidation, several days after training in a water maze had ceased, can be disrupted by a temporary intra hippocampal infusion of the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid/kainate antagonist LY326325 (Riedel et al., 1999). Such reversible pharmacological techniques offer advantages over the permanent lesion studies that had first suggested a role for the hippocampus in memory consolidation. However, to date the role of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in such systems level processes remains controversial with evidence for impairments and augmentation of performance. Here we investigate the role of post-training hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade in rats and mice on the consolidation of weak and strong memory traces using an Atlantis water maze protocol. A hidden Atlantis platform was employed and rats (experiments 1 and 2) and mice (experiment 3) were required to dwell within 20 cm of the trained location to activate and subsequently reveal the escape platform. In experiments 1 and 3 a strong memory trace was established by training rats or mice for several days in the water maze. In experiment 2 a significantly weaker trace was instituted by reducing the training period. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade was induced after the last training trial and continued for seven days. Reliable memory for the trained platform location in a retention test 15 days after the last training day demonstrated that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade did not affect memory consolidation in rats or mice. Our results also show that post-training N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade can lead to better performance in further retention tests conducted after the consolidation and drug administration period. Those data suggest that specific post-training N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade does not impair memory consolidation and it may also offer a memory trace mild protection from retrograde interference.

Interaction between M1-muscarinic and glutamatergic NMDA receptors on an inhibitory avoidance task

It has been demonstrated that MK-801 potentiates the effects of the non-selective muscarinic antagonist scopolamine on memory in rats. In this study, we investigated the role of the M1-muscarinic receptor in this interaction, by administering different doses of dicyclomine (DIC) and MK-801 in combination to male Wistar rats before training on the inhibitory avoidance task. MK-801 and DIC in sub-effective doses were administered in combination. It was observed that MK-801 at a dose of 0.1125 mg/kg with a sub-effective dose of 8 mg/kg of DIC significantly impaired the retention test when compared with saline-treated animals, i.e. MK-801 potentiated the effects of dicyclomine on memory impairment. Our results suggest an important role for the M1-muscarinic receptor in the synergistic interaction between cholinergic muscarinic and glutamatergic NMDA receptors, which is in line with the findings that the interactive modulation between these two neurotransmitters systems constitutes an important mechanism in cognitive functions.

Coantagonism of glutamate receptors and nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptors disrupts fear conditioning and latent inhibition of fear conditioning

The present study investigated the hypothesis that both nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptors (nAChRs) and glutamate receptors (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate receptors (AMPARs) and N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptors (NMDARs)) are involved in fear conditioning, and may modulate similar processes. The effects of the nAChR antagonist mecamylamine administered alone, the AMPAR antagonist NBQX administered alone, and the NMDAR antagonist MK-801 administered alone on cued fear conditioning, contextual fear conditioning, and latent inhibition of cued fear conditioning were examined. In addition, the effects of coadministration of either mecamylamine and NBQX or mecamylamine and MK-801 on these behaviors were examined. Consistent with previous studies, neither mecamylamine nor NBQX administered alone disrupted any of the tasks. However, coadministration of mecamylamine and NBQX disrupted both contextual fear conditioning and latent inhibition of cued fear conditioning. In addition, coadministration of mecamylamine with a dose of MK-801 subthreshold for disrupting either task disrupted both contextual fear conditioning and latent inhibition of cued fear conditioning. Coadministration of mecamylamine and NBQX, and coadministration of mecamylamine with a dose of MK-801 subthreshold for disrupting fear conditioning had little effect on cued fear conditioning. These results suggest that nAChRs and glutamate receptors may support similar processes mediating acquisition of contextual fear conditioning and latent inhibition of fear conditioning.

Rolipram attenuates MK-801-induced deficits in latent inhibition

Latent inhibition is used to examine attention and study cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. Research using MK-801, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) open channel blocker, implicates glutamate receptors in acquisition of latent inhibition of cued fear conditioning. Evidence suggests an important relationship between NMDA-induced increases in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and learning and memory. The authors examine whether amplification of the cAMP signaling pathway by rolipram, a selective Type 4 cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor, reverses MK-801-induced impairments in latent inhibition. One day before training, mice were injected with MK-801, rolipram, MK-801 and rolipram, or vehicle and received 20 preexposures or no preexposures to an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS). Training consisted of 2 CS-footshock unconditioned stimulus pairings. Rolipram attenuated the disruptive effect of MK-801 on latent inhibition, which suggests a role for the cAMP signaling pathway in the task and implicates phosphodiesterase inhibition as a target for treating cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia.