title: Age-related decrease in vulnerability to excitatory amino acids in the nucleus basalis.
abstract: The present study investigated the effects of nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) lesions in young (3 months), adult (9 months), and aged (24 months) rats by injections of either NMDA or AMPA upon performance of a delayed alternation task on a T maze. During phase 1 of testing, the interchoice interval (ICI) was 5 s and each rat was given 10 trials per day during phase 2, the ICI was 30 s across 10 trials per day; during phase 3, the ICI was 5 s across 20 trials per day. Analyses of variance revealed (a) a significant effect of age during phase 1 (i.e., 24-month-old rats performed worse than 3-month-old rats); (b) a significant effect of age and lesion in phase 2 (i.e., the lesions impaired choice accuracy equally in all age groups when the ICIs were 30 s); (c) a significant effect of age and lesions, and a significant interaction in phase 3 (i.e., young rats were more impaired by the lesions than were aged rats.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neural Systems, Memory & Aging, University of Arizona, Tucson 85724, USA.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Wenk
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Stoehr
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Mobley
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gurney
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Morris
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D013377:Substantia Innominata / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D018350:alpha-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D018350:alpha-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic Acid; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase