Blockade of spontaneous posttraining performance improvement in mice by NMDA antagonists

We investigated the effects of immediate post-training systemic administration of gamma-L-glutamyl-L-aspartate (gamma-LGLA) and 3-(2-carboxypiperazine-4-yl)-propyl-1-phosphonate (CPP), antagonists at the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, in a lever-press task in two inbred strains of mice. When retention performance was tested in control animals 24 h after partial acquisition of the task. BALB/c mice exhibited a spontaneous performance improvement whereas C57BL/6J mice did not gamma-LGLA at doses of 2.5 and 25 mumol/kg and CPP at doses ranging between 0.025 and 2.5 mumol/kg blocked the spontaneous performance improvement found in BALB/c mice but had no apparent effects on the retention performance of C57BL/6J mice. These data suggest that retention impairment induced by CPP and gamma-LGLA in BALB/c mice results from an interference with posttraining memory processes.