Cognitive function can be affected by the estrous cycle. However, the effect of the estrous cycle on synaptic functions is poorly understood. Here we show that in female rats, inhibitory-avoidance (IA) task (hippocampus-dependent contextual fear-learning task) drives GluA2-lacking Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors (CP-AMPARs) into the hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses during all periods of the estrous c...

This research study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of chronic cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) on alleviation of learning and memory deficits in diabetic rats as a result of the observed antidiabetic and antioxidant activity of C3G. Male Wistar rats were divided into control, diabetic, C3G-treated-control and -diabetic groups. The C3G was administered i.p. at a dose of 10 mg/kg on alternate d...

Soybean lecithin transphosphatidylated phosphatidylserine (SB-tPS) is already known to improve the learning ability of aged or drug-induced amnesic rodents. In this study, its effect on normal adult rodents was evaluated using several learning tasks. Firstly, three behavioral tests (open-field, Y-maze, and active avoidance test) were consecutively carried out after the daily oral administration...

To evaluate several cognitive parameters during the execution of behavioral tasks assessing cognitive function in laboratory animals, the parameters are reported within a range. This situation entails that each laboratory must establish the conditions under which the behavioral task to evaluate the cognitive function can be carried out. C57BL/6 and BALB/c inbred strains are used more often in b...

11Beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11b-HSD1) locally amplifies active glucocorticoids within specific tissues including in brain. In the hippocampus, 11b-HSD1 messenger RNA increases with aging. Here, we report significantly greater increases in intrahippocampal corticosterone (CORT) levels in aged wild-type (WT) mice during the acquisition and retrieval trials in a Y-maze than age-mat...

The use of reversible lesion techniques in memory research was pioneered in the laboratory of Jan Bures and Olga Buresova. We use the occasion of Jan's 75th birthday to briefly review the experimental utility of this approach. Two experiments from our current research are reported in which reversible lesioning methods are used to ask otherwise experimentally untenable questions about memory ret...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate the neurobehavioral consequences of focal ischemia in rats. METHODS We induced permanent occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery in 14 Sprague-Dawley rats, and used 13 sham-operated rats as controls. During surgery, brain temperature and body temperature were kept at normothermia. Neurobehavioral studies (neurological examin...

Cognitive impairment, termed chemobrain, is a common neurotoxicity associated with chemotherapy treatment, affecting an estimated 78% of patients. Prompted by the hypothesis that neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction underlies chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI), we explored the efficacy of administering the small-molecule pifithrin (PFT)-μ, an inhibitor of mitochondrial p53 accumulat...

In an investigation of recognition memory involving a preference test, hooded rats of both sexes were individually confined to the stem and choice area of a Tor Y-maze by means of clear Perspex barriers across each arm entrance that enabled the subjects to see into but not enter the arms. Following removal of the barriers and changing of one arm to opposite brightness, the first arm entered and...

In most studies regarding the improving or therapeutical effects induced by enriched environment (EE), EE was performed after the stress treatment or in patients with certain diseases. In the current study, the effects of chronic restraint stress (6h/day) in mice living in an enriched environment or standard environment (SE) were tested. Mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: non-stressed or...