Age dependent changes in retention in rats I

Gold, Paul E.; McGaugh, James L.; Hankins, Linda L.; Rose, Robert P.; Vasquez, Beatriz J.

doi:10.1080/03610738208258395

Cited by 71 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The finding that vehicle-treated aged rats failed to exhibit a differential search strategy on the retention probe trial is similar to previous reports that have observed rapid forgetting in aged animals (e.g. Barnes & McNaughton, 1985;Diana et al, 1995;Rasmussen et al, 1996;Foster et al, 1991;Gage et al, 1984;Gold, McGaugh, Hankins, Rose, & Vasquez, 1981;Linder, Balch, & VanderMaelen, 1992;Mabry et al, 1996;Rapp et al, 1987;Winocur, 1988). Secondly, when the number of platform crossings was examined for both probe trials (Tables 1 and 2), each group except the aged MK-801 rats exhibited a drop in the number of crossings from the acquisition probe to the retention probe, indicating that aged rats injected with MK-801 continued to focus their search to the location that had contained the platform.…”

Section: Figsupporting

confidence: 78%

MK-801 Improves Retention in Aged Rats: Implications for Altered Neural Plasticity in Age-Related Memory Deficits

Norris

Foster

1999

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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Alterations in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent synaptic plasticity, characteristic of aged rodents, may contribute to impaired memory with advanced age. The purpose of the current research was to examine whether NMDARs contribute to rapid forgetting on a spatial memory task. Aged (22-24 months) and adult (3-6 months) male Fischer 344 rats received 18 training trials, over a period of 3 to 4 h, on the spatial version of the Morris water maze. Immediately after training, a standard free-swim probe trial was administered to assess the acquisition of spatial bias, which was determined by the percent of time spent in the goal quadrant and the number of platform crossings. Rats then received injections of the noncompetitive NMDAR antagonist, (ϩ)-10,11-dihydro-5methyl-5H-dibenzo-(a,b)cycloheptene-5,10 imine (MK-801, 0.05 mg/kg, i.p.), or a vehicle injection of equal volume. Approximately 24 h later, rats were administered a second free-swim probe trial to assess retention of spatial bias. All age/drug groups exhibited a spatial bias on the acquisition probe, with adults generally outperforming the aged rats. On the retention probe, this spatial bias continued to be shown by adult rats, regardless of treatment. For the aged group, in contrast, only MK-801-injected rats maintained a spatial bias on the retention probe, suggesting that NMDAR activity may be involved in rapid forgetting during aging. Because blockade of NMDARs also may impair new learning, which may, in turn, protect previously stored information from retroactive interference, rats in a second experiment received post-training injections of scopolamine (0.05 mg/kg), a compound known to inhibit learning. However, scopolamine did not enhance retention in the aged group, consistent with the hypothesis that MK-801 influenced memory in aged rats through its actions on NMDAR-dependent synaptic plasticity.

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Section: Figsupporting

confidence: 78%

MK-801 Improves Retention in Aged Rats: Implications for Altered Neural Plasticity in Age-Related Memory Deficits

Norris

Foster

1999

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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“…There are many such examples of accelerated forgetting in aged rodents, with specific time courses that differ by task. Memory for inhibitory avoidance training, which remains stable for weeks after training in young rats, is intact only during the first few hours after training and then deteriorates over the next hours and days (Gold et al 1982). Rapid forgetting is also evident in the swim task, in which learning within a day appears to be forgotten overnight by aged but not young rats (Gage et al 1984;Rapp et al 1987;Mabry et al 1996).…”

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confidence: 93%

“…Similarly, young and aged rats have comparable memory scores on a reward reduction task when tested 1 d after training, but aged and not young rats exhibit forgetting when tested 7 d after training (Salinas and Gold 2005). Other examples include more rapid forgetting in aged than young rats and mice on visual discriminated avoidance (Gold et al 1982), spatial (Barnes and McNaughton 1985), spatial reversal (Zornetzer et al 1982), spontaneous alternation (Stone et al 1992), odor-reward association (Roman et al 1996), and eye-blink classical conditioning (Solomon et al 1995) tasks.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rapid forgetting of social transmission of food preferences in aged rats: Relationship to hippocampal CREB activation

Countryman¹,

Gold²

2007

Learn. Mem.

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A major characteristic of age-related changes in memory in rodents is an increase in the rate of forgetting of new information, even when tests given soon after training reveal intact memory. Interference with CREB functions similarly results in rapid decay of memory. Using quantitative immunocytochemistry, the present experiment examined the number of CREB-and pCREB-immunoreactive neurons in three regions of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus (dentate gyrus, CA3, and CA1) as a function of age and training. Rats were trained in a social transmission of food preference task. Using different food pairings, memory was tested in each rat immediately and 1, 2, 3, and 7 d later. Both young and old rats had intact and comparable memory scores at the immediate and 24-h tests, but old rats exhibited more rapid forgetting thereafter relative to that of young rats. The main findings were that training resulted in large increases in the number of pCREB-immunoreactive cells throughout the hippocampus in both young and aged rats. However, particularly in the ventral hippocampus, the training-elicited increase in pCREB-positive neurons was significantly lower in old than in young rats. Based on Western blot analyses in a separate set of rats, CREB levels were not responsive to training but were lower in the ventral hippocampus of old rats than of young rats. The present findings suggest that lower activation of CREB after training may contribute to the rapid forgetting seen in aged rats.Rats and mice exhibit age-related impairments in learning and memory on many tasks. Often, the impairments can be characterized in terms of rapid forgetting, in which aged rats and mice have relatively comparable learning and memory on tests soon after training, but poor memory at later times after training (Barnes and McNaughton 1985;

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“…Recent findings of studies of aged (2-year-old) rats and mice indicate that these animals exhibit very rapid forgetting (Bartus, Dean, Beer, & Lippa, 1981;Gold, McGaugh, Hankins, Rose, & Vasquez, 1981;Zometzer, Thompson, & Rogers, 1982) and, in addition, exhibit diminished epinephrine release in response to moderate footshock (McCarty, 1981). However, as shown in Figure 5, retention performance in these animals can be significantly enhanced when measured 1 to 7 days later by a single posttraining epinephrine injection (Sternberg, Martinez, Gold, & McGaugh, 1985).…”

Section: Peripheral Epinephrine and Memory Storagementioning

confidence: 99%

Neurobiological features common to memory modulation by many treatments

Gold

1989

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Evidence reviewed here suggests that many treatments that retroactively enhance or impair memory in rats and mice may act by releasing epinephrine from the adrenal medulla: (1) When administered shortly after training, epinephrine injections modulate memory storage processes; (2) plasma epinephrine levels assessed shortly after training predict later performance of learned responses in several situations; and furthermore, (3) peripherally administered adrenergic antagonists block the effects on memory of epinephrine and of many other treatments that enhance and impair memory. In addition, the rapid forgetting exhibited by juvenile and aged rodents can be retarded (i.e., memory is improved) by posttraining epinephrine injections, suggesting that age-related memory deficits may reflect inadequate functions of those neuroendocrine systems responsible, in part, for regulating memory storage. These results, together with the additional finding that epinephrine enhances the establishment of a neurophysiological analogue of memory, long-term potentiation, suggest that the hormone regulates neurobiological processes responsible for memory formation. 94Evidence accumulated over the past 25 years indicates that, if administered soon after a training experience, a variety of treatments can retroactively modify memorystorage processing (Gold & Zometzer, 1983;McGaugh, 1966;McGaugh & Herz, 1972). Amnestic agents used in the past have included electroconvulsive shock, localized electrical stimulation of the brain, and drugs that interfere with protein synthesis, neurotransmitter synthesis, or neurotransmitter function. When considered with the finding that retrograde amnesia can be observed after training in a wide range of behavioral tasks and in a large number of species, two features are clear. First, if a treatment produces amnesia in one task or in one species, that treatment is likely to do so in other tasks and other species. Second, although the specific time course may vary widely under different conditions, the treatments produce more severe memory disruption when administered soon after training than they do when administered at long delays after training. Similarly, many studies provide evidence that some treatments, including administration of such stimulant drugs as amphetamine and low doses of pentylenetetrazol, can enhance the storage of recent information. Here again, the treatments have the largest effects on memory when administered at short intervals after training. The generality of these findings, in terms of task, species, and time-dependency, suggests some biological commonalities in the mechanisms by which most treatments modulate memory-storage processes under a broad spectrum of specific experimental conditions. A

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Age dependent changes in retention in rats I

Cited by 71 publications

References 13 publications

MK-801 Improves Retention in Aged Rats: Implications for Altered Neural Plasticity in Age-Related Memory Deficits

MK-801 Improves Retention in Aged Rats: Implications for Altered Neural Plasticity in Age-Related Memory Deficits

Rapid forgetting of social transmission of food preferences in aged rats: Relationship to hippocampal CREB activation

Neurobiological features common to memory modulation by many treatments

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