Effects of glucose on responsiveness to change in young adult and middle-aged rats.
After a 0.5-, 15-, or 30-min intertrial interval, first entries of a novel Y-maze arm that had changed in brightness, percent entries of the arm, and percent time spent in this arm during a 1-min period were recorded in 4-month-old hooded rats following 6 or 30 min of free exploration of both arms. From the results, it was concluded that maximal responsiveness to the changed (or novel) arm occurred after 6 min of exploration and a 30-min intertrial interval. In a second experiment, responsiveness to change was assessed in young adult (4 months) and middle-aged (18 months) rats after 6 min of free exploration followed by an intraperitoneal injection of distilled water, or 50 or 100 mg/kg d-glucose before testing 20 min later. While glucose increased first entries of the changed arm in all rats, longer-term responsiveness in the form of percent entries of the novel arm and time spent in the novel arm was increased only for young adults. Although the results suggested age-specific glucose-enhanced consolidation or retrieval of change-related information, it was also possible that the treatment had differentially increased preferences for novelty in the two age groups. This possibility should be addressed in future research.
Hughes
Robert N
RN
Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, PB 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. r.hughes@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D014868:Water Deprivation / Q000502:physiology
D005947:Glucose