Temperature-dependent consolidation of puromycin-susceptible memory in the goldfish.

Memory of a shock-avoidance task in goldfish (Carassius auratus) maintained at 20°C shows a temporal gradient of insusceptibility to post-trial injection of puromycin upon testing 7 days later. Treatment with the antimetabolite 24 hr after training has no effect on retention. There is a significant decrease in the puromycin-induced memory loss if fish are warmed to 30°C for a 90-minute interval between conditioning and injection of puromycin. If fish are cooled to 4.5°C for 24 hr between learning and puromycin injection, a significant block of memory results. There are in addition time-independent effects of the cold treatment on performance. Although temperature increase from 20 to 30°C does not in itself affect retention, it does cause a 3-fold stimulation of incorporation of 3H-leucine into brain protein. Decrease in temperature from 20 to 4.5°C reduces protein labeling by 86-97 percent.