Galanin attenuates retention of one-trial reward learning

Galanin is a neuropeptide that coexists with acetylcholine in the septohippocampal pathway. Galanin appears to have a negative modulating influence on cholinergic transmission, suggesting that it might interfere with memory formation on a one-trial discriminative reward learning task. The apparatus was a starburst maze with five radiating alleys, one an ascending baited alley. The subjects were 38 two to three month old Sprague-Dawley rats cannulated in the body of the lateral ventricles and deprived to 80% of initial weight. Ten rats were infused i.c.v. over six mins. with 8 micrograms galanin in 24 microliters saline and 10 with saline alone. Twenty mins. after completion of infusion, each rat was placed in the maze and observed under "blind" conditions for number of errors (blind alleys entered) and latency to reach reward. Each rat's speed score was 100 sec./latency. One day later, each rat was retested in the maze. Each rat's retention scores were its decrease in errors and increase in speed between the single training trial and the retention trial. Galanin infused rats showed significantly less retention by both measures. In a second experiment, either the same dose of galanin or saline alone was infused 20 mins. before the retention trial. There was no significant effect, suggesting that galanin may interfere with memory formation rather than memory retrieval or task performance.