Effects of footshock-, psychological- and forced swimming-stress on the learning and memory processes: involvement of opioidergic pathways.

Abstract

Modulation of learning and memory acquisition, retention and retrieval in the one trial passive avoidance learning task in mice by three inescapable stresses, i.e., footshock (FS), psychological (PSY) and forced swimming (SW) were investigated. Pre-, post-training and pre-test FS-stress (2 mA, 0.2 Hz, 1 sec for 30 min) and pre-training PSY-stress (communication box, 5 min) resulted in enhanced test latencies. On the contrary, SW-stress (20 degrees C, 5 min) immediately or 1 hr after training impaired retention latencies that tended to recover after 2 hr post-training SW-stress, suggesting that at least 2 hr are required to consolidate newly acquired information. In contrast, pre-stress naloxone (Nx), which did not affect FS- and PSY-stress induced facilitatory effects, returned to control levels the impaired retention latencies induced by SW-stress. Taken collectively, these results imply the involvement of an opioid-dependent mechanism in the modulation of memory by SW-stress and non-opioid in the case of FS- and PSY-stress. Furthermore, they suggest that different mechanisms are involved in stress-induced memory modifications and the production of stress-induced analgesia (SIA) since in the latter, FS and PSY but not SW stress produce Nx-sensitive antinociception.