An Inability of Subcutaneous Vasopressin to Affect Passive Avoidance Behavior

Abstract

The effects of subcutaneous injections of vasopressin on the passive avoidance behavior of rats were investigated in an extensive study. 200 male Wistar rats were tested in a step-through passive avoidance task. The animals were assigned randomly to 1 of 20 experimental groups consisting of five vasopressin injection and four shock level conditions. Each animal was trained to enter a dark compartment, then subjected to 0.25, 0.10, 0.05 mA or no foot shock for 2 sec. 60 min prior to a retention test administered 24 h after the foot shock, each animal was given a single injection of 0.30, 0.12, 0.06, or 0.03 IU of vasopressin or of saline. Time to reenter the shock compartment was tested 24 and 48 h after the foot shock. Latencies in both retention tests indicated that, although there was a significant effect of shock level on latency scores, there was no effect of vasopressin with any dose level tested. The inability to find an effect of vasopressin in this study is contrary to results of other studies. Several factors, including general reactivity of the animals or the distribution system for vasopressin in the brain, might provide the underlying reason for these dramatic differences.

Simultaneous Monitoring of Intracerebral Release and Behavior: Endogenous Vasopressin Improves Social Recognition

“…Subsequent studies have focused mainly on the effects of exogenous AVP (3)(4)(5), in particular on the interaction between AVP treatment and aversive stimulation (6)(7)(8). Those investigations using specific antisera or antagonists suggested that the endogenous neuropeptide is involved (9-1 1), but direct demonstration of increased intracerebral release of AVP and improved behavioral performance is still lacking.…”

Behavioral Effects of Vasopressin

“…extinction had been prolonged after periph eral or central administration of vasopressin. However, several recent experiments [Carey and Miller, 1982;Bai-ley and Weiss, 1979;Hostetler et al, 1980;Sahgal et al, 1982] do not confirm the observations from the preced ing studies.…”

The vasopressin−memory hypothesis: a citation network analysis of a debate

“…Hostetter et al . found no effect of vasopressin in a food reward task but did find an effect on fear‐motivated behavior; they subsequently reported the inability to reproduce de Wied's findings on passive avoidance behavior . In 1983, Ettenberg et al .…”