Injection of the anticholinesterase drug diisopropyl fluorophosphate into the hippocampi of rats, 30 minutes after escape learning, produces partial amnesia with full recovery 5 days after injection. No such amnesia is produced if the injection takes place 3 days after learning. However, with injections 5 days after learning there is again an effect, and at 14 days amnesia is complete though no normal forgetting occurs within this period.

Intraperitoneal injection of physostigmine in rats produced a retrograde amnesia of a trained task of escaping shock. This amnesic effect was a U-shaped function of the length of the interval between initial training and injection. In all cases, retraining Occurred 30 minutes after injection. A substantial effect was produced by physostigmine if its application was made 30 minutes after training; there was no effect if application and tests were made 1, 2, or 3 days after the original training. When the substance was injected and the rats were retrained 5, 7, or 14 days after the original training, a substantial effect again appeared. These results are similar to those reported in experiments in which another anticholinesterase, diisopropyl fluorophosphate, was applied intracerebrally. The data demonstrate a similar pattern of change of the amnesia with time, and they substantiate the view that neither the place of application nor the brain lesions caused the reported amnesia.

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With spreading depression in 1 hemisphere, rats were trained to avoid shock; with spreading depression shifted to the contralateral hemisphere, the same rats were tested for retention of the avoidance response. Contralateral savings were observed when nonavoidable shock was given bilaterally (with neither hemisphere depressed) either before or after initial unilateral training and when avoidable shock was given bilaterally after initial unilateral training. No savings were observed in the absence of bilateral training. The results support a stimulus generalization hypothesis of interhemispheric transfer.