Working and Reference Memory in the Rat: Role of the 5-HT7 Antagonist SB-269970
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1
University of L'Aquila, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Sciences of Education , Italy
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2
Depto. de Farmacobiología, CINVESTAV, Mexico
Many studies showed that serotonin (5-HT) neurons project to cerebral areas involved in learning and memory processes and that 5-HT receptor agonists and antagonists modulate these processes. Indeed, most of the 5-HT receptors characterized so far show a distribution in brain areas involved in learning and memory, such as hippocampus, amygdala and cortex. Although 5-HT7 receptor biological functions are still to be clarified, it was recently suggested that it could play a role in memory processes. The aim of our study was to assess the role of 5-HT7 receptors antagonist SB-269970 on working and reference memory in a radial arm maze task, utilizing a two-phase procedure, comprising an acquisition and test phase, conducted to evaluate working and reference memory, respectively. Our data showed that 5-HT7 receptors antagonist SB-269970 improved memory, decreasing the errors in test phase and, thus, affecting reference memory, while no effect in working memory was observed. These results could be explained taking into consideration the specific localization of 5-HT7 receptors in the CNS: high concentrations of 5-HT7 receptors were found in the hippocampus, which exerts an important role on reference memory, while relatively low concentrations were present in the prefrontal cortex, involved in working memory. Thus, 5-HT7 receptor blockade had procognitive effect, if the learning task had a high degree of difficulty. This conclusion has a major implication in the context that 5-HT receptors play an important role under amnesia states (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) or when the learning is complex.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Animal Models of Cognition
Citation:
Gasbarri
A,
Cifariello
A,
Pompili
A,
Falconieri
D and
Meneses
A
(2008). Working and Reference Memory in the Rat: Role of the 5-HT7 Antagonist SB-269970.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.075
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Received:
01 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
01 Dec 2008.
*
Correspondence:
Antonella Gasbarri, University of L'Aquila, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Sciences of Education, L'Aquila, Italy, antonella.gasbarri@cc.univaq.it