title: Roles of hippocampal GABA(A) and muscarinic receptors in consolidation of context memory and context-shock association in contextual fear conditioning: a double dissociation study.
abstract: Contextual fear conditioning involves forming a context representation and associating it to a shock, both of which involved the dorsal hippocampus (DH) according to our recent findings. This study tested further whether the two processes may rely on different neurotransmitter systems in the DH. Male Wistar rats with cannula implanted into the DH were subjected to a two-phase training paradigm of contextual fear conditioning to separate context learning from context-shock association in two consecutive days. Immediately after each training phase, different groups of rats received bilateral intra-DH infusion of the GABA(A) agonist muscimol, 5HT(1A) agonist 8-OH-DPAT, NMDA antagonist APV or muscarinic antagonist scopolamine at various doses. On the third day, freezing behavior was tested in the conditioning context. Results showed that intra-DH infusion of muscimol impaired conditioned freezing only if it was given after context learning. In contrast, scopolamine impaired conditioned freezing only if it was given after context-shock training. Posttraining infusion of 8-OH-DPAT or APV had no effect on conditioned freezing when the drug was given at either phase. These results showed double dissociation for the hippocampal GABAergic and cholinergic systems in memory consolidation of contextual fear conditioning: forming context memory required deactivation of the GABA(A) receptors, while forming context-shock memory involved activation of the muscarinic receptors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Shih-Dar
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D017371:8-Hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004597:Electroshock; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D009118:Muscimol / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A / Q000502:physiology*; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic / Q000502:physiology*; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D017366:Serotonin Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D014633:Valine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic; D017366:Serotonin Receptor Agonists; D009118:Muscimol; C056639:2-amino-5-phosphopentanoic acid; D017371:8-Hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin; D012601:Scopolamine; D014633:Valine