Sensory preconditioning in the rabbit following ACTH injections

The effects of ACTH elevation on sensory preconditioning were examined using the rabbit NM response. Sensory preconditioning is an associative form of learning which is presumed to rely on a "stimulus map" provided by the hippocampus. Elevation of levels of ACTH was found to have no significant effect on SPC. This finding was interpreted as evidence that not all deficits found in hippocampal lesioned animals may be attributed to hormonal mediation. It was suggested that ACTH elevation may selectively mimic those deficits ascribed to a "neural model" process involving the hippocampus.