Haloperidol treatment at pre-exposure phase reduces the disturbance of latent inhibition in rats with neonatal ventral hippocampus lesions

Animals with neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions develop during or after adolescence abnormal behaviors related to schizophrenia such as anxiety and latent inhibition disruption. The aim of this study was to test whether haloperidol injection prior to pre-exposure session in the latent inhibition test would facilitate latent inhibition. Lesioned animals showed a significant decrease in the number and duration of social interactions, a decrease in the marbles buried, a significant increase in locomotor activity, and a disruption of latent inhibition. In the conditioned taste aversion test, injection of haloperidol produced the recovery of latent inhibition. These findings demonstrate that neonatal lidocaine lesion of the ventral hippocampus can induce behavioral changes related to schizophrenia, and injection of haloperidol, when restricted only to a three-day pre-exposure, is sufficient to facilitate latent inhibition.