Effects of chronic subanesthetic ketamine application as an experimental schizophrenia model on emotional and cognitive behaviours

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Effects of chronic subanesthetic ketamine application as an experimental schizophrenia model on emotional and cognitive behaviours T.Alper Karsli1*, M. Mengi1 and Ertan Yurdakos1 1 Department of Physiology, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Turkey Ketamine, a non-selective NMDA receptor antagonist, is known to induce psychosis-like symptoms. Ketamine induces psychosis in healthy people and exacerbates present symptoms of schizophrenics. Given the fact that systematic injection of ketamine at a subanesthetic dose as low as 30mg/kg for five days is capable of disrupting latent inhibition performance of rats nearly 30 days later following the last injection, it is also possible that the same treatment also results in emotional learning and memory problems as observed in schizophrenia. This study is conducted to find out whether intraperitoneal (i.p) ketamin application for 5 days at a subanesthetic dose, which is proposed to be a new schizophrenia model, simulates the endotypic cognitive and emotional problems observed in schizophrenics by using Morris Water Maze, Porsolt Swimming Test, Open field and Holeboard tests. Male rats of Wistar strain weighing in a range from 230 to 250gr. were used in this study. Two experimental groups (n=9) were injected with 35mg/kg i.p ketamine for 5 days. In the first experimental group Open field, Holeboard and Porsolt swimming tests were applied starting 15 days after the last day of injection. Each of these tests was separated from one another by 24 hours. Morris Water Maze was used in the second experimental group. Control groups were injected with 0,25ml i.p saline for 5 days which then followed by the same procedure applied to the experimental groups. Results were analysed with Mann-Whitney U test for inter-group comparisons and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test for intra-group comparisons. There was no statistically significant difference among the daily learning levels of the first experimental group on the Morris Water Maze, which was applied for 4 days, whereas for the control group there were significant differences among the daily learning levels. The second experimental group displayed significantly longer immobilization and shorter struggle time on the second swimming test (PST 2) compared to the first test (PST 1) conducted 24 hours before. No significant differences were observed for the experimental group on immobilization and struggle parameters between PST 1 and PST 2. The time spent for freezing behaviour in both Open field and Holeboard tests were significantly shorter for the experimental group compared to the control group; there were no statistically significant differences on any of the other parameters in both tests for the experimental group. Our results indicate that injection with i.p ketamine at a subanesthetic dose for five days, which is proposed to be a new animal model of psychosis, actually models the deterioration in cognitive and emotional learning problems observed in schizophrenics. This work was supported by the Research Found of The University of Istanbul. Project number: T-668/30062005 Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Turkey, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Animal Models of Cognition Citation: Karsli T, Mengi M and Yurdakos E (2008). Effects of chronic subanesthetic ketamine application as an experimental schizophrenia model on emotional and cognitive behaviours. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.078 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 01 Dec 2008; Published Online: 01 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: T.Alper Karsli, Department of Physiology, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey, karslita@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers T.Alper Karsli M. Mengi Ertan Yurdakos Google T.Alper Karsli M. Mengi Ertan Yurdakos Google Scholar T.Alper Karsli M. Mengi Ertan Yurdakos PubMed T.Alper Karsli M. Mengi Ertan Yurdakos Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.