Reference and working memory of rats following hippocampal damage induced by transient forebrain ischemia

Acquisition of reference and working memory was evaluated in an animal model of cerebral ischemia. Rats were subjected to 30 minutes of transient forebrain ischemia, allowed to recover, and then tested for 95 trials on an 8-arm maze with 5 arms baited. During the 95 trials post ischemic (PI) rats made significantly more working and reference errors than controls (p less than 0.05). However, an analysis of the last 20 trials (75-95) showed that while PI rats and control rats had comparable reference memory (p greater than 0.8). PI rats tended to have a persistent working memory deficit compared to controls (p less than 0.06). Subsequent morphologic analysis showed that PI rats had almost complete loss of pyramidal neurons in the anterior CA1 region of the hippocampus, moderate to severe loss in mid-dorsal posterior hippocampus, and less damage to the dorsolateral striatum. These results suggest that the PI animal is a reasonable model for the permanent behavioral impairment and pathologic damage found in some human survivors of cardiac arrest.