Central injection of caspase inhibitors facilitates the formation of freezing behavior in rats

Abstract

We studied the effects of central administration of pancaspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk and specific caspase 3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk on learning and memory in rats. The inhibitors selectively facilitated the formation of freezing behavior without modulating consolidation and retrieval of passive defense behavior in the model of conditioned freezing.

Synapse-specific plasticity in command neurons during learning of edible snails under the action of caspase inhibitors

“…Accumulating data indicate the involvement of caspases in various non-apoptotic physiological processes, including learning-related plastic changes in the nervous system. In rats, caspase-3 inhibitors suppress consolidation of long-term memory in the Morris water maze [8] and stimulate the development of conditioned freezing response to the key sonic stimulus, but produce no effect on the development, consolidation, and retrieval of conditioned contextual fear [2]. In birds, habituation to the species-specific song is accompanied by accumulation of caspase-3 in the synaptic regions of neuronal dendrites in subdivisions of the forebrain involved into habituation processes [11].…”