Nuovo modello animale per lo studio della working memory: validazione farmacologica e applicazioni

Locchi, Federica (2009) Nuovo modello animale per lo studio della working memory: validazione farmacologica e applicazioni, [Dissertation thesis], Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Dottorato di ricerca in Farmacologia e tossicologia, 21 Ciclo. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsdottorato/2085.
Documenti full-text disponibili:
[img]
Anteprima
Documento PDF (Italiano) - Richiede un lettore di PDF come Xpdf o Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (4MB) | Anteprima

Abstract

The present study was performed to validate a spatial working memory task using pharmacological manipulations. The water escape T-maze, which combines the advantages of the Morris water maze and the T-maze while minimizes the disadvantages, was used. Scopolamine, a drug that affects cognitive function in spatial working memory tasks, significantly decreased the rat performance in the present delayed alternation task. Since glutamate neurotransmission plays an important role in the maintaining of working memory, we evaluated the effect of ionotropic and metabotropic glutamatergic receptors antagonists, administered alone or in combination, on rat behaviour. As the acquisition and performance of memory tasks has been linked to the expression of the immediately early gene cFos, a marker of neuronal activation, we also investigated the neurochemical correlates of the water escape T-maze after pharmacological treatment with glutamatergic antagonists, in various brain areas. Moreover, we focused our attention on the involvement of perirhinal cortex glutamatergic neurotransmission in the acquisition and/or consolidation of this particular task. The perirhinal cortex has strong and reciprocal connections with both specific cortical sensory areas and some memory-related structures, including the hippocampal formation and amygdala. For its peculiar position, perirhinal cortex has been recently regarded as a key region in working memory processes, in particular in providing temporary maintenance of information. The effect of perirhinal cortex lesions with ibotenic acid on the acquisition and consolidation of the water escape T-maze task was evaluated. In conclusion, our data suggest that the water escape T-maze could be considered a valid, simple and quite fast method to assess spatial working memory, sensible to pharmacological manipulations. Following execution of the task, we observed cFos expression in several brain regions. Furthermore, in accordance to literature, our results suggest that glutamatergic neurotransmission plays an important role in the acquisition and consolidation of working memory processes.

Abstract
Tipologia del documento
Tesi di dottorato
Autore
Locchi, Federica
Supervisore
Dottorato di ricerca
Scuola di dottorato
Scienze biologiche, biomediche e biotecnologiche
Ciclo
21
Coordinatore
Settore disciplinare
Settore concorsuale
Parole chiave
ratti memoria recettori glutamatergici
URN:NBN
DOI
10.6092/unibo/amsdottorato/2085
Data di discussione
24 Marzo 2009
URI

Altri metadati

Statistica sui download

Gestione del documento: Visualizza la tesi

^