Retention of CS-US association learned under ketamine anesthesia

In order to assess learning possibilities under ketamine anesthesia, rats underwent a pavlovian conditioning (tone paired with foot-shock), and were subsequently tested in a conditioned suppression of lever pressing for food paradigm. First, two sessions of 70 trials were conducted, on 4 groups of anesthetized rats: a conditioned group (group C) experienced the tone (CS+) always paired with foot-shocks, whereas a discriminative group (group D) was submitted to a differential conditioning (CS+ followed by the US and a CS- always presented alone). Another group (habituated, H) received presentations of tone (CS+) alone and the fourth group (naive animals, N) was never anesthetized. Seven days later, while rats were pressing the lever to get food, CS+ presentations elicited a significant conditioned suppression of instrumental responses only in groups C and D. Moreover, a differential effect between CS+ and CS- was obtained for group D. These results indicate that a Pavlovian conditioning can occur under anesthesia, and then that its memory can last at least 7 days. The particular specific effects of ketamine are discussed to account for these results.