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Cholinergic modulation of aged‐like retention deficits in young autoimmune mice
Author(s) -
Forster Michael J.,
Lal Harbans
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(90)90062-7
Subject(s) - habituation , physostigmine , cholinergic , endocrinology , cholinesterase , psychology , medicine , neuroscience
Separate age groups of autoimmune NZB/BINJ and non‐autoimmune C57BL/BNNia mice were compared for habituation of locomotor activity and its retention over four separate testing sessions spaced at 24‐hr intervals. A decline in locomotion (distance in cm) or in the time spent in the center zone as a function of sessions was taken to indicate retention for habituation to stimuli within the test apparatus. The time spent in the center zone decreased as a function of sessions in young and mature C57BL/6NNia mice but failed to show reliable between‐session decreases in old (24–26‐months) C57BL/ 6NNia mice. When compared with the old C57BL/6NNia mice, young NZB/BINJ mice showed similar impairments. Habituation of locomotion was present in all age groups of C57BL/6NNia mice, but absent in NZB/BINJ mice regardless of age. The retention impairments of 2–4 month old NZB/BINJ mice were attenuated when i.p. injections of 0.04–0.16 mg physostigmine/kg were given just following each habituation session. The effectiveness of physostigmine was substantially reduced when injections were delayed by 20 min or longer following each habituation session. The time‐dependent reversal of the aged‐like retention deficits by the cholinesterase inhibitor, physostigmine, suggests that cholinergic modulation of memory storage processes may be impaired in NZB/BINJ mice.