Pharmacological Protection Against Memory Retrieval Deficits as a Method of Discovering New Therapeutic Agents

The material in this chapter represents one component of a more global approach to the discovery of drugs to treat a variety of cognitive disorders. The broader plan, which is described in greater detail elsewhere (1), is based on a pragmatic behavioral approach to the search for agents to treat cognitive disease states that may range from attention deficit disorders (or hyperkinesis) and dyslexia in children to forget-fulness and Alzheimer’s disease in the aged. This overall broad-based approach requires examination of many types of behaviors representing a number of processes and is functional in nature. Although such a behavioral program can exist on its own, it is usually employed in conjunction with one or more specific biochemical or chemical hypotheses.