Premium
Handling cancelled chronic stress effects on learning and memory retention
Author(s) -
Marcondes Fernanda Klein,
Costa Rafaela,
Tamascia Mariana Leite
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.856.2
The aim of this work was to study handling effect, on the behavioral responses to chronic mild and unpredictable stress (CMUS) applied during 3 weeks. Male adult rats were divided into 4 groups: Control, Handling, CMS and Handling+CMS. Handling consisted of periods of 5 minutes, during which the animal was removed from its cage, placed on the lap of experimenter or on the top of a table and had its neck and back gently stroked by the experimenter's fingers. One week after CMUS learning and spatial memory were evaluated by recording escape latency in the elevated plus‐maze (EPM) ‐ two trials. CMS (45 ± 9) and Handling+CMUS (26 ± 4) groups presented higher plasma corticosterone (ng/mL) compared with Control (2 ± 1) and Handling (2 ± 1) groups respectively. CMS and Handling+CMUS groups showed higher escape latency (s) in the first trial (CMUS=12±3 vs. Control=7±1; Handling+CMUS=7±1 vs. Handling=4±1) and second trial (CMUS=7±2 vs. Control=3±1; Handling+CMUS=3±1 vs. Handling=1±0.2) when compared to Control and Handling groups respectively. CMUS had a negative effect on learning and memory. Handling decreased corticosterone secretion and canceled the reduction of learning and memory retention induced by CMUS, showing a protective effect.