Abstract
This study uses an operant, behavioral model to assess the daily changes in the decay rate of short-term memory, motivation, and motor ability in rats exposed to chronic restraint. Restraint decreased reward-related motivation by 50% without altering memory decay rate or motor ability. Moreover, chronic restraint impaired hippocampal-dependent spatial memory on the Y maze (4-hr delay) and produced CA3 dendritic retraction without altering hippocampal-independent maze navigation (1-min delay) or locomotion. Thus, mechanisms underlying motivation for food reward differ from those underlying Y maze exploration, and neurobiological substrates of spatial memory, such as the hippocampus, differ from those that underlie short-term memory. Chronic restraint produces functional, neuromorphological, and physiological alterations that parallel symptoms of depression in humans.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 842-851 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Behavioral Neuroscience |
Volume | 120 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2006 |
Keywords
- Hippocampus
- Metabolism
- Motivation spatial memory
- Operant conditioning
- Stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Behavioral Neuroscience