Pre‐ or post‐training injection of buspirone impaired retention in the inhibitory avoidance task: involvement of amygdala 5‐HT 1A receptors

The present study investigated the effect of buspirone on memory formation in an aversive learning task. Male Wistar rats were trained on the inhibitory avoidance task and tested for retention 1 day after training. They received peripheral or intra‐amygdala administration of buspirone or other 5‐HT 1A drugs either before or after training. Results indicated that pretraining systemic injections of buspirone caused a dose‐dependent retention deficit; 5.0 mg/kg had a marked effect and 1.0 mg/kg had no effect. Post‐training injections of the drug caused a time‐dependent retention deficit, which was not due to a state‐dependent effect on retrieval. When training in the inhibitory avoidance task was divided into a context‐training phase and a shock‐training phase, buspirone impaired retention only when administered in the shock‐training phase, suggesting that the drug influenced memory processing of affective events. Further results indicated that post‐training intra‐amygdala infusion of buspirone or the 5‐HT 1A agonist 8‐hydroxy‐di‐n‐propylaminotetralin (8‐OH‐DPAT) caused a time‐dependent and dose‐dependent retention deficit. Post‐training intra‐amygdala infusion of the 5‐HT 1A antagonist WAY100635 (N‐(2‐(4‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)‐1‐piperazinyl)‐N‐(2‐pyridyl) cyclohexane carboxamine maleate) attenuated the memory‐impairing effects of buspirone. These findings suggest that buspirone may modulate memory storage processes in the inhibitory avoidance task through an action on amygdaloid 5‐HT 1A receptors.