Abstract
A number of aversive and appetitive unconditioned stimuli (such as shock and food) are known to produce memory enhancement when they occur during the post-training period. Post-training exposure to conditioned aversive stimuli has also been shown to enhance memory consolidation processes. The present study shows for the first time that post-training exposure to conditioned stimuli previously paired with consumption of a sucrose solution also enhances memory consolidation. Male Long Evans rats were trained on a one-session conditioned cue preference (CCP) task on a radial arm maze. Immediately or 2 hours after training, rats consumed a sucrose solution or were exposed to cues previously paired with consumption of sucrose or cues previously paired with water. Twenty-four hours later, the rats were tested for a CCP. Immediate, but not delayed, post-training consumption of sucrose enhanced memory for the CCP. Immediate, but not delayed, post-training exposure to cues previously paired with sucrose, but not with water, also enhanced CCP memory. The possibility that rewarding and aversive conditioned stimuli affect memory by a common physiological process is discussed.
Highlights
Certain kinds of events that occur during the period immediately after a new task is learned can modulate memory for the task[1,2,3,4,5]
The rats in the immediate post-training sucrose group spent significantly more time in their food-paired than in their unpaired arms (F(1,10) = 5.03, p < 0.05) while the group that drank sucrose 2 hours after maze training spent similar amounts of time in their food-paired and unpaired arms (F(1,10) < 1.0). These results show that immediate, but not delayed; post-training exposure to sucrose had a retroactive enhancing effect on memory consolidation rather than a proactive effect on performance
There was no difference in the number of Froot Loops consumed (t(10) < 1.0) but significantly more sucrose was consumed by the 2-hour delay group than by the immediate sucrose group (t(10) = 2.23, p = 0.05)
Summary
Certain kinds of events that occur during the period immediately after a new task is learned can modulate memory for the task[1,2,3,4,5] Events such as electroconvulsive shock[6,7,8] or anaesthetization[9,10] can weaken a memory; events such as injections of epinephrine[11,12,13] or amphetamine[14,15,16,17,18] can strengthen a memory. The present study was designed to determine if post-training exposure to rewarding conditioned cues, previously paired with consumption of sucrose, can enhance consolidation of the memory for a recently acquired task
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