Reduction of ECS produced retrograde amnesia by post-trial introduction of strychnine

Abstract

Strychnine sulfate was used to reduce the amount of retrograde amnesia induced by electroconvulsive shock (ECS). Male Swiss-Webster mice were trained on the step-down passive avoidance task, given ECS and then injected intraperitoneally with either 0.1 mg/kg strychnine or saline. The animals were tested in the apparatus one to twenty-four hours later. Mice given ECS alone displayed partial memory for the training (by responding with longer latencies) if tested within two hours after training, but did not display retention twenty-four hours later. Animals given strychnine following ECS had significantly longer step-down latencies at twenty-four hours than did the saline or no injection controls. Further experiments replicated the basic results, and also showed that strychnine injections delayed two hours after the training trial attenuated ECS-induced retrograde amnesia, but that a three hour injection delay was ineffective. The results were interpreted in terms of changes in short-term and long-term memory.