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Authors & Affiliations
Oluwatobi Adeyemo, Aleksandra Koszałka, Henryk Marona, Karolina Pytka
Abstract
Mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, are a major health concern worldwide, affecting more than 540 million people globally. Although there are treatments available to help with various symptoms, cognitive deficits, particularly impaired executive functions, are often not addressed. In this study, we aim to investigate the effectiveness of HBK-15, a multimodal compound known for its rapid antidepressant-like effect, in reducing cognitive flexibility deficits in mice.We used male Balb/c mice. To assess the effect on cognitive flexibility, we used touchscreen-based two-choice pairwise visual discrimination and reversal tasks. We administered MK-801, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, to induce cognitive deficits. The mice were given varying doses (0.625mg/kg, 1.25mg/kg, and 2.5mg/kg) of HBK-15 through intraperitoneal injection.Administration of MK-801 resulted in impaired reversal learning, which was noticeable in the decrease in the percentage of correct responses and the increase in incorrect responses, correction trials, and trial time. Although HBK-15 did not fully overcome the MK-801-induced deficit, it facilitated the switch from the previous learning associations, especially at 0.625mg/kg. This was manifested by a reduction in correction trials.These findings indicate that HBK-15 may possess the potential to alleviate cognitive flexibility deficits that are often associated with mental disorders. Further investigation into the compound's impact on other components of executive function will provide valuable insights into its capacity to improve cognitive domains.This study has been conducted as part of a research project financed by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant number 2019/34/E/NZ7/00454).