Time gradient for post-test vulnerability to scopolamine-induced amnesia following the initial acquisition session of a spatial reference memory task in mice

The time course for vulnerability to the amnestic effects of the cholinergic antagonist, scopolamine, during the postacquisition period has been investigated. We have examined the effects of post-test injections of scopolamine (1 mg/kg ip) given at different times from 30 s for up to 6 h following the end of the first acquisition session of a concurrent spatial discrimination (reference memory) protocol in an 8-arm radial maze on subsequent long-term (24 h) retention performance in C57BL/6 mice. Results show that the immediate (30 s) post-test injection of scopolamine—HCl on Day 1 produces marked perturbation (amnesia) of long-term retention as attested to by significant deficits in various indices of spatial discrimination performance gain on Day 2 as compared to control subjects injected either with scopolamine—MBr or saline. The severity of this scopolamine-induced amnesia declines only slightly as a function of the treatment period 30 s—3 h post-test. However, no evidence for amnesia is observed if scopolamine—HCl injections are delayed for 6 h postsession. This important latter observation attests to the absence of any significant proactive effects of scopolamine on the ability of mice to perform the retention test via possible long-term effects on attention, motivation, or locomotor performance. These results thus constitute evidence for the existence of a limited (30 s–3 h) time gradient for vulnerability of the early memory trace to disruption by scopolamine. The present results are dis cussed in relation to our previous direct neurochemical observations describing the differential time courses of intervention of the ascending septohippocampal and nBM—cortical cholinergic pathways in the postlearning period. In particular, the presently observed time window concerning post-test vulnerability to scopolamine-induced amnesia corresponds more closely to the time course of the acute activation of the nBM—cortical cholinergic pathway, induced by testing with the same spatial memory protocol as used in the present study in mice.