The effects of vasopressin on memory processes: The role of noradrenergic neurotransmission

Abstract

Publisher Summary Electrophysiological findings indicate an action of vasopressin on the central nervous system: the neuronal activities of the hypothalamus and cortex are influenced by the peptide. With single treatments with the peptide at various time intervals after the single learning trial, the critical period of the effect of vasopressin could be determined. Treatment given immediately after the learning trial appeared to be most effective. The effect of the peptide disappeared 6 h after the trial. As consolidation of memory takes place within the first few hours after learning, the conclusion that vasopressin facilitates memory consolidation was justified. Vasopressin affects not only consolidation, but also retrieval processes. Vasopressin is not the only peptide of the posterior pituitary gland that influences learning and memory processes. The other physiologically secreted neuropeptide, oxytocin facilitates the extinction of an active avoidance reaction and attenuates passive avoidance behavior in various one-trial learning avoidance paradigms; thus, the two neuropeptides, oxytocin and vasopressin, affect behavioral processes in opposite ways. Vasopressin treatment facilitates memory consolidation processes via modulation of the noradrenergic neurotransmission in limbic midbrain terminals of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle.