title: Effects of benzodiazepines on acquisition and performance: a critical assessment.
abstract: Evidence related to the effects of benzodiazepines on learning and memory is reviewed in the contexts of human verbal learning studies and animal studies using both aversive and non-aversive paradigms. While the impairment of acquisition by benzodiazepines appears to be a robust phenomenon generalizing across species and experimental conditions, the impairment in the performance of an already-learned task by such drugs appears to be more restrictive and highly dependent upon experimental contingencies. Thus far, performance impairment appears to be found mainly in animal studies using non-aversive, food-motivated tasks, with such tasks being particularly well suited for investigating such a phenomenon. At present, there is a noticeable lack of knowledge regarding the neurochemical substrates underlying BDZ-induced impairment. Finally, some issues that may contribute to the presence or absence of a BDZ-induced performance impairment in published studies are briefly considered.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001569:Benzodiazepines; D002415:Cats; D010856:Columbidae; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D001569:Benzodiazepines