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Epinephrine‐induced enhancement of memory retrieval for inhibitory avoidance conditioning in preweanling Sprague–Dawley rats
Author(s) -
Flint Robert W.,
Bunsey Michael D.,
Riccio David C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.20212
Subject(s) - epinephrine , amnesia , psychology , conditioning , developmental psychology , latency (audio) , endocrinology , medicine , anesthesia , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , engineering , electrical engineering
Developmental research on memory is commonly conducted using preweanling rats, but the extent to which these animals are susceptible to hormone‐induced memory retrieval is unclear. This study examined the effects of epinephrine (.001, .01, or .1 mg/kg) on retrieval of IA conditioning in 17‐day‐old infants. Animals tested 24 hr following training performed significantly worse than infants tested 5 min after training and adults tested 24 hr later, indicating that infantile amnesia had occurred. Epinephrine attenuated this deficit in a dose‐dependent manner, with a significant improvement in performance at doses of .01 mg/kg for latency and at .01 and .1 mg/kg for safe side‐dependent measures. The role of epinephrine as a memory modulator is discussed in terms of its neurobiological and internal contextual effects. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 303–311, 2007.