ePoster

Effect of psychotomimetic dizocilpine on coordination of place and time representations in rats

Eduard Kelemen, Tereza Rydzykova, Ewa Szczurowska
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Eduard Kelemen, Tereza Rydzykova, Ewa Szczurowska

Abstract

The ability to combine simpler aspects of experiences into higher order knowledge or memory structures is a key mental ability. This ability is impaired in psychosis, which may be related to delusional symptoms. We studied how psychotomimetic dose of dizocilpine affects coordination between spatial and temporal aspects of learned behavioral sequences in rats. On a four-arm plus maze rats learned to visit in an ordered sequence three rewarded arms interleaved by repeated visits to the start arm. Behavior was assessed in 14 rats under three doses of dizocilpine (0.05 mg/kg, 0.1 mg/kg, and 0.125 mg/kg, injected intraperitoneally) and compared to control conditions of saline injection. The lowest dose of 0.05 mg/kg of dizocilpine had no effect on task performance. 0.1 and 0.125 mg/kg of dizocilpine led to a significant increase in what we call “association errors”, when rats visited rewarded arms in incorrect order. These errors indicated impaired place-time associations. The number of “working memory errors”, when rats revisited the same rewarded arm, significantly increased only after the highest dose of dizocilpine, suggesting that working memory was less sensitive to the treatment. Increase in “return errors”, i.e. missed visit to the start arm, was also observed after 0.1 and 0.15 mg/kg. We thus characterized impairment of associations between spatial and temporal aspects of experience and other types of cognitive and motor impairments in dizocilpine-induced psychotomimetic model. Local field potential recordings performed in parallel with behavior will provide insight into functional mechanisms behind specific cognitive impairments.

Unique ID: fens-24/effect-psychotomimetic-dizocilpine-3bd43a2c