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Effect of antibiotics on retention of visual discrimination training and on protein synthesis in the pigeon

L J Stettner1, R Barraco, H J Normile

  • 1Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.

Physiology & Behavior
|July 1, 1977
PubMed

Insights

Puromycin (PM) causes amnesia and impairs learning in pigeons, while cycloheximide (CXM) has weaker effects. PM

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Protein synthesis inhibitors are used to study memory consolidation.
  • Puromycin (PM) and cycloheximide (CXM) are known protein synthesis inhibitors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effects of puromycin (PM) and cycloheximide (CXM) on learning and memory in pigeons.
  • To determine if PM or CXM affect the acquisition and retention of a visual discrimination task.

Main Methods:

  • Pigeons were trained on a visual discrimination task.
  • Animals were injected with PM, CXM, saline, or a combination of PM and CXM immediately after training.
  • Performance was assessed by measuring the time to reach criterion and the percentage of correct responses.

Main Results:

  • PM induced significant amnesia and impaired continued acquisition of the visual discrimination.
  • CXM produced a weaker amnesic effect and did not impair continued acquisition.
  • In a reversal learning task, PM-injected pigeons showed superior performance compared to controls and CXM-injected pigeons.

Conclusions:

  • Protein synthesis inhibition by PM and CXM differentially affects memory consolidation and learning.
  • The amnesic effects of PM are specific to the behavioral circuits active during training.

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