Latent inhibition: the nucleus accumbens connection revisited

Estrogen receptors observed at extranuclear neuronal sites and in glia in the nucleus accumbens core and shell of the female rat: Evidence for localization to catecholaminergic and GABAergic neurons

Estrogens affect dopamine-dependent diseases/behavior and have rapid effects on dopamine release and receptor availability in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Low levels of nuclear estrogen receptor (ER) α and ERβ are seen in the NAc, which cannot account for the rapid effects of estrogens in this region. G-protein coupled ER 1 (GPER1) is observed at low levels in the NAc shell, which also likely does not account for the array of estrogens' effects in this region. Prior studies demonstrated membrane-associated ERs in the dorsal striatum; these experiments extend those findings to the NAc core and shell. Single- and dual-immunolabeling electron microscopy determined whether ERα, ERβ, and GPER1 are at extranuclear sites in the NAc core and shell and whether ERα and GPER1 were localized to catecholaminergic or γ-aminobutyric acid-ergic (GABAergic) neurons. All three ERs are observed, almost exclusively, at extranuclear sites in the NAc, and similarly distributed in the core and shell. ERα, ERβ, and GPER1 are primarily in axons and axon terminals suggesting that estrogens affect transmission in the NAc via presynaptic mechanisms. About 10% of these receptors are found on glia. A small proportion of ERα and GPER1 are localized to catecholaminergic terminals, suggesting that binding at these ERs alters release of catecholamines, including dopamine. A larger proportion of ERα and GPER1 are localized to GABAergic dendrites and terminals, suggesting that estrogens alter GABAergic transmission to indirectly affect dopamine transmission in the NAc. Thus, the localization of ERs could account for the rapid effects of estrogen in the NAc.

Disruption of Long-Term Depression Potentiates Latent Inhibition: Key Role for Central Nucleus of the Amygdala

BACKGROUND

Latent inhibition (LI) reflects an adaptive form of learning impaired in certain forms of mental illness. Glutamate receptor activity is linked to LI, but the potential role of synaptic plasticity remains unspecified.

METHODS

Accordingly, the present study examined the possible role of long-term depression (LTD) in LI induced by prior exposure of rats to an auditory stimulus used subsequently as a conditional stimulus to signal a pending footshock. We employed 2 mechanistically distinct LTD inhibitors, the Tat-GluA23Y peptide that blocks endocytosis of the GluA2-containing glutamate α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor, or the selective glutamate n-methyl-d-aspartate receptor 2B antagonist, Ro25-6981, administered prior to the acquisition of 2-way conditioned avoidance with or without tone pre-exposure.

RESULTS

Systemic LTD blockade with the Tat-GluA23Y peptide strengthened the LI effect by further impairing acquisition of conditioned avoidance in conditional stimulus-preexposed rats compared with normal conditioning in non-preexposed controls. Systemic Ro25-6981 had no significant effects. Brain region-specific microinjections of the Tat-GluA23Y peptide into the nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex, or central or basolateral amygdala demonstrated that disruption of glutamate α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor endocytosis in the central amygdala also potentiated the LI effect.

CONCLUSIONS

These data revealed a previously unknown role for central amygdala LTD in LI as a key mediator of cognitive flexibility required to respond to previously irrelevant stimuli that acquire significance through reinforcement. The findings may have relevance both for our mechanistic understanding of LI and its alteration in disease states such as schizophrenia, while further elucidating the role of LTD in learning and memory.

Sign and goal tracker rats process differently the incentive salience of a conditioned stimulus

Sign and goal tracker animals show different behavioral patterns in response to conditioned stimuli, which may be driven by different neural circuits involved in processing stimuli. Here, we explored whether sign and goal-tracker profiles implicated different brain regions and responses to incentive salience of stimuli. We performed three experiments using male Wistar rats. Experiment 1 showed that lesioning the medial prefrontal cortex increased the prevalence of the goal-tracker phenotype. Experiment 2 assessed the developmental trajectory of the salience incentive attribution to a conditioned stimulus, showing that increased incentive salience of stimuli increased the prevalence of the sign-tracker phenotype in mature, but not preadolescent rats. In experiment 3, the functional impact of the medial prefrontal cortex circuits was analyzed with a latent inhibition procedure. Sign tracker rats showed a reduced latent inhibition to stimuli previously exposed when compared to goal tracker or intermediate rats. The overall results of this study highlight a key role of the medial prefrontal cortex for sign tracking behavior. The expression of sign and goal tracker phenotypes changed after lesion to the medial prefrontal cortex (experiment 1), differed across development (experiment 2), and showed differences in the attentional processes to previously exposed stimuli, as preexposure to CS was ineffective in sign tracker animals (experiment 3). These data indicate that the responses to the incentive salience of stimuli in sign tracker and goal tracker profiles are likely driven by different neural circuitry, with a different role of prefrontal cortical function.

An examination of the roles of glutamate and sex in latent inhibition: Relevance to the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia?

The present study examined the effects of the glutamate receptor antagonist MK-801, the glutamate receptor agonist N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), and sexual dimorphism on latent inhibition to elucidate the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. During the pre-exposure phase, 56 male and 65 female Wistar rats were intracerebroventricularly administered normal saline, MK-801 or NMDA, in the left ventricle and then exposed to a passive avoidance box (or a different context) in three trials over 3 days. Then, all of the rats were placed in the light compartment of the passive avoidance box and were allowed to enter the dark compartment, where they each received a footshock (1mA, 2s) in five trials over 5 days. Injections of the glutamate drugs NMDA and MK-801 did not affect latent inhibition. Sexual dimorphism did not occur in latent inhibition. The present data on the male rats indicated that the glutamate system did not affect latent inhibition, indicating that the glutamate system was not like the dopamine system in terms of mediating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. The glutamate system might be involved in the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. The results may provide information for novel treatments of the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Brain Lateralization of Emotional Processing: Historical Roots and a Future Incorporating “Dominance”

This article provides a review of research on the hemispheric specialization in emotional processing during the past 40 years and the theoretical models derived from the conceptual analysis of these results. The publications reviewed here were collected to better appreciate the cortical lateralization of emotional perception (visual and auditory), expression (facial and prosodic), and experience. Four major models of emotional processing are discussed—the Right Hemisphere, Valence, Approach-Withdrawal, and Behavioral Inhibition System–Behavioral Activation System models. Observing the relative merits and limitations of these models, a new direction for exploration is offered. Specifically, to better appreciate the strength and direction (i.e., approach versus withdrawal) of experienced emotions, it is recommended that state “dominance” be evaluated in the context of asymmetrical activation of left-frontal (dominance) versus right-frontal (submission) brain regions.

Resting lateralized activity predicts the cortical response and appraisal of emotions: an fNIRS study

This study explored the effect of lateralized left-right resting brain activity on prefrontal cortical responsiveness to emotional cues and on the explicit appraisal (stimulus evaluation) of emotions based on their valence. Indeed subjective responses to different emotional stimuli should be predicted by brain resting activity and should be lateralized and valence-related (positive vs negative valence). A hemodynamic measure was considered (functional near-infrared spectroscopy). Indeed hemodynamic resting activity and brain response to emotional cues were registered when subjects (N = 19) viewed emotional positive vs negative stimuli (IAPS). Lateralized index response during resting state, LI (lateralized index) during emotional processing and self-assessment manikin rating were considered. Regression analysis showed the significant predictive effect of resting activity (more left or right lateralized) on both brain response and appraisal of emotional cues based on stimuli valence. Moreover, significant effects were found as a function of valence (more right response to negative stimuli; more left response to positive stimuli) during emotion processing. Therefore, resting state may be considered a predictive marker of the successive cortical responsiveness to emotions. The significance of resting condition for emotional behavior was discussed.

Motivational mechanisms (BAS) and prefrontal cortical activation contribute to recognition memory for emotional words. rTMS effect on performance and EEG (alpha band) measures

The present research addressed the question of where memories for emotional words could be represented in the brain. A second main question was related to the effect of personality traits, in terms of the Behavior Activation System (BAS), in emotional word recognition. We tested the role of the left DLPFC (LDLPFC) by performing a memory task in which old (previously encoded targets) and new (previously not encoded distractors) positive or negative emotional words had to be recognized. High-BAS and low-BAS subjects were compared when a repetitive TMS (rTMS) was applied on the LDLPFC. We found significant differences between high-BAS vs. low-BAS subjects, with better performance for high-BAS in response to positive words. In parallel, an increased left cortical activity (alpha desynchronization) was observed for high-BAS in the case of positive words. Thus, we can conclude that the left approach-related hemisphere, underlying BAS, may support faster recognition of positive words.

Aversive stimuli differentially modulate real-time dopamine transmission dynamics within the nucleus accumbens core and shell

Although fear directs adaptive behavioral responses, how aversive cues recruit motivational neural circuitry is poorly understood. Specifically, while it is known that dopamine (DA) transmission within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is imperative for mediating appetitive motivated behaviors, its role in aversive behavior is controversial. It has been proposed that divergent phasic DA transmission following aversive events may correspond to segregated mesolimbic dopamine pathways; however, this prediction has never been tested. Here, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to examine real-time DA transmission within NAc core and shell projection systems in response to a fear-evoking cue. In male Sprague Dawley rats, we first demonstrate that a fear cue results in decreased DA transmission within the NAc core, but increased transmission within the NAc shell. We examined whether these changes in DA transmission could be attributed to modulation of phasic transmission evoked by cue presentation. We found that cue presentation decreased the probability of phasic DA release in the core, while the same cue enhanced the amplitude of release events in the NAc shell. We further characterized the relationship between freezing and both changes in DA as well as local pH. Although we found that both analytes were significantly correlated with freezing in the NAc across the session, changes in DA were not strictly associated with freezing while basic pH shifts in the core more consistently followed behavioral expression. Together, these results provide the first real-time neurochemical evidence that aversive cues differentially modulate distinct DA projection systems.

Estudos traducionais de neuropsiquiatria e esquizofrenia: modelos animais genéticos e de neurodesenvolvimento

Sintomas psiquiátricos são subjetivos por natureza e tendem a se sobrepor entre diferentes desordens. Sendo assim, a criação de modelos de uma desordem neuropsiquiátrica encontra desafios pela falta de conhecimento dos fundamentos da fisiopatologia e diagnósticos precisos. Modelos animais são usados para testar hipóteses de etiologia e para representar a condição humana tão próximo quanto possível para aumentar nosso entendimento da doença e avaliar novos alvos para a descoberta de drogas. Nesta revisão, modelos animais genéticos e de neurodesenvolvimento de esquizofrenia são discutidos com respeito a achados comportamentais e neurofisiológicos e sua associação com a condição clínica. Somente modelos animais específicos de esquizofrenia podem, em último caso, levar a novas abordagens diagnósticas e descoberta de drogas. Argumentamos que biomarcadores moleculares são importantes para aumentar a tradução de animais a humanos, já que faltam a especificidade e a fidelidade necessárias às leituras comportamentais para avaliar sintomas psiquiátricos humanos.

Dopamine D1 receptor involvement in latent inhibition and overshadowing

Latent inhibition (LI) manifests as poorer conditioning to a stimulus that has previously been experienced without consequence. There is good evidence of dopaminergic modulation of LI, as the effect is reliably disrupted by the indirect dopamine (DA) agonist amphetamine. The disruptive effects of amphetamine on LI are reversed by both typical and atypical antipsychotics, which on their own are able to facilitate LI. However, the contribution of different DA receptors to these effects is poorly understood. Amphetamine effects on another stimulus selection procedure, overshadowing, have been suggested to be D1-mediated. Thus, in the current experiments, we systematically investigated the role of D1 receptors in LI. First, we tested the ability of the full D1 agonist SKF 81297 to abolish LI and compared the effects of this drug on LI and overshadowing. Subsequently, we examined whether the D1 antagonist SCH 23390 can lead to the emergence of LI under conditions that do not produce the effect in normal animals (weak pre-exposure). Finally, we tested the ability of SCH 23390 to block amphetamine-induced disruption of LI. We found little evidence that direct stimulation of D1 receptors abolishes LI (although there was some attenuation of LI at 0.4 mg/kg SKF 81297). Similarly, SCH 23390 failed to enhance LI. However, SCH 23390 did block amphetamine-induced disruption of LI. These data indicate that, while LI may be unaffected by selective manipulation of activity at D1 receptors, the effects of amphetamine on LI are to some extent dependent on actions at D1 receptors.

When to hold that thought: an experimental study showing reduced inhibition of pre-trained associations in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia encompasses a wide variety of cognitive dysfunctions, a number of which can be understood as deficits of inhibition. To date, no research has examined ‘conditioned inhibition’ in schizophrenia - the ability of a stimulus that signals the absence of an expected outcome to counteract the conditioned response produced by a signal for that outcome (a conditioned excitor). A computer-based task was used to measure conditioned excitation and inhibition in the same discrimination procedure, in 25 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia and a community-based comparison sample. Conditioned inhibition was measured by a ratio score, which compared the degree to which the inhibitory stimulus and a neutral control stimulus reduced conditioned responding to the excitatory cue: the lower the ratio, the greater the inhibitory learning. At test the ratios were 0.45 and 0.39 for patient and control groups respectively, and the relevant interaction term of the ANOVA confirmed that the degree of inhibition was reduced in the patient group, with an effect size of r = 0.28.

These results demonstrate for the first time that inhibitory learning is impaired in schizophrenia. Such an impairment provides an attractive framework for the interpretation of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, we were unable to demonstrate any relationship between the level of conditioned inhibition and medication. Similarly, in the present study it must be emphasised that the available data did not demonstrate any relationship between individual variation in inhibitory learning and the level of positive symptoms as measured by the PANSS. In fact inhibitory learning impairment was relatively greater in participants with a predominantly negative symptom profile and their excitatory learning was also reduced. Accordingly the next step will be to investigate such relationships in a larger sample with a priori defined sub-groups displaying predominantly positive versus predominantly negative symptoms.

Opposing effects of 5,7-DHT lesions to the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens on the processing of irrelevant stimuli

There is good evidence that forebrain serotonergic systems modulate cognitive flexibility. Latent inhibition (LI) is a cross-species phenomenon which manifests as poor conditioning to a stimulus that has previously been experienced without consequence and is widely considered an index of the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli. While much research has focused on dopaminergic mechanisms underlying LI, there is also considerable evidence of serotonergic modulation. However, the neuroanatomical locus of these effects remains poorly understood. Previous work has identified the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as a key component of the neural circuit underpinning LI and furthermore, this work has shown that the core and shell subregions of the NAc contribute differentially to the expression of LI. To examine the role of the serotonergic input to NAc in LI, we tested animals with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) lesions to the core and shell subregions on LI assessed under experimental conditions that produce LI in shams and subsequently with weak stimulus pre-exposure designed to prevent the emergence of LI in shams. We found that serotonergic deafferentation of the core disrupted LI whereas 5,7-DHT lesions to the shell produced the opposite effect and potentiated LI.

Gender differences in the effects of presynaptic and postsynaptic dopamine agonists on latent inhibition in rats

The present study investigated gender differences in the effects of presynaptic and postsynaptic DA agonists on latent inhibition in the passive avoidance paradigm. During the preexposure phase, 32 male and 32 female Wistar rats were exposed to a passive avoidance box (or a different context) and received drug injections in three trials: the control group received an injection of 10% ascorbic acid in a different context. The experimental groups received injections of 10% ascorbic acid (latent inhibition [LI] group), 1mg/kg of the postsynaptic DA D(1)/D(2) agonist apomorphine (APO group), and 1.5mg/kg of the presynaptic DA agonist methamphetamine (METH group) in a passive avoidance box. All experimental groups were placed in the light compartment of the passive avoidance box and were allowed to enter into the dark compartment to receive a footshock (1mA, 2s) in five trials over 5 days. The latency to enter into the dark compartment was recorded in these five trials. The latent inhibition occurred in the female LI group but not in the male LI group. Regardless of gender, the APO group exhibited an increase in latent inhibition. Male rats in the METH group exhibited a decrease in latent inhibition, but female rats in the METH group exhibited an increase in latent inhibition, indicating that the METH group exhibited sexual dimorphism. The gender factor interacted only with the METH group and not the LI or APO group. The present paper discusses whether gender, the postsynaptic DA D(1)/D(2) agonist APO, and presynaptic DA agonist METH may be related to schizophrenia.

Muscarinic agonists and antagonists in schizophrenia: recent therapeutic advances and future directions

Existing therapies for schizophrenia have limited efficacy, and significant residual positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms remain in many individuals with the disorder even after treatment with the current arsenal of antipsychotic drugs. Preclinical and clinical data suggest that selective activation of the muscarinic cholinergic system may represent novel therapeutic mechanisms for the treatment of schizophrenia. The therapeutic relevance of earlier muscarinic agonists was limited by their lack of receptor selectivity and adverse event profile arising from activation of nontarget muscarinic receptors. Recent advances in developing compounds that are selective to muscarinic receptor subtypes or activate allosteric receptor sites offer tremendous promise for therapeutic targeting of specific muscarinic receptor subtypes in schizophrenia.

Dopamine in nucleus accumbens: salience modulation in latent inhibition and overshadowing

Latent inhibition (LI) is demonstrated when non-reinforced pre-exposure to a to-be-conditioned stimulus retards later learning. Learning is similarly retarded in overshadowing, in this case using the relative intensity of competing cues to manipulate associability. Electrolytic/excitotoxic lesions to shell accumbens (NAc) and systemic amphetamine both reliably abolish LI. Here a conditioned emotional response procedure was used to demonstrate LI and overshadowing and to examine the role of dopamine (DA) within NAc. Experiment 1 showed that LI but not overshadowing was abolished by systemic amphetamine (1.0 mg/kg i.p.). In Experiment 2, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) was used to lesion DA terminals within NAc: both shell- and core- (plus shell-)lesioned rats showed normal LI and overshadowing. Experiment 3 compared the effects of amphetamine microinjected at shell and core coordinates prior to conditioning: LI, but not overshadowing, was abolished by 10.0 but not 5.0 µg/side amphetamine injected in core but not shell NAc. These results suggest that the abolition of LI produced by NAc shell lesions is not readily reproduced by regionally restricted DA depletion within NAc; core rather than shell NAc mediates amphetamine-induced abolition of LI; overshadowing is modulated by different neural substrates.

The M₁/M₄ preferring agonist xanomeline reverses amphetamine-, MK801- and scopolamine-induced abnormalities of latent inhibition: putative efficacy against positive, negative and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia

A major challenge in developing schizophrenia pharmacotherapy is treating the different symptoms of this disorder, typically divided into positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. M₁/M₄ muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) agonists have emerged as a promising therapeutic target, particularly for positive and cognitive symptoms. Here, we examined the activity of the M₁/M₄ mAChR-preferring agonist xanomeline in four pharmacological latent inhibition (LI) models. LI is the poorer conditioning to a stimulus previously experienced as irrelevant during repeated non-reinforced pre-exposure to that stimulus. No-drug controls displayed LI if non-reinforced pre-exposure to a tone was followed by weak, but not strong, conditioning (2 vs. 5 tone-shock pairings). Amphetamine (1 mg/kg)- or scopolamine (0.15 mg/kg)-treated rats failed to show LI with weak conditioning, whereas MK801 (0.05 mg/kg)- or scopolamine (1.5 mg/kg)-treated rats persisted in displaying LI with strong conditioning. Xanomeline (5 mg/kg, 15 mg/kg) reversed amphetamine- and scopolamine-induced LI disruption, effects considered predictive of activity against positive symptoms of schizophrenia. In addition, xanomeline alleviated MK801-induced abnormally persistent LI. Activity of xanomeline on NMDA antagonist-induced behaviour was demonstrated here for the first time and suggests that the drug is effective against negative/cognitive symptoms. Finally, xanomeline alleviated abnormally persistent LI induced by scopolamine, which was suggested to model antipsychotic drug-resistant cognitive impairments, providing further evidence for the cognition-enhancing capacity of xanomeline. Although the use of xanomeline in schizophrenia was discontinued due to cholinergic-related side-effects, our findings suggest that M₁/M₄ mAChR agonism should be an important target in drug development in schizophrenia, potentially beneficial for treatment of positive, negative and cognitive symptoms.

Involvement of the cholinergic system in conditioning and perceptual memory

The cholinergic systems play a pivotal role in learning and memory, and have been the centre of attention when it comes to diseases containing cognitive deficits. It is therefore not surprising, that the cholinergic transmitter system has experienced detailed examination of its role in numerous behavioural situations not least with the perspective that cognition may be rescued with appropriate cholinergic 'boosters'. Here we reviewed the literature on (i) cholinergic lesions, (ii) pharmacological intervention of muscarinic or nicotinic system, or (iii) genetic deletion of selective receptor subtypes with respect to sensory discrimination and conditioning procedures. We consider visual, auditory, olfactory and somatosensory processing first before discussing more complex tasks such as startle responses, latent inhibition, negative patterning, eye blink and fear conditioning, and passive avoidance paradigms. An overarching reoccurring theme is that lesions of the cholinergic projection neurones of the basal forebrain impact negatively on acquisition learning in these paradigms and blockade of muscarinic (and to a lesser extent nicotinic) receptors in the target structures produce similar behavioural deficits. While these pertain mainly to impairments in acquisition learning, some rare cases extend to memory consolidation. Such single case observations warranted replication and more in-depth studies. Intriguingly, receptor blockade or receptor gene knockout repeatedly produced contradictory results (for example in fear conditioning) and combined studies, in which genetically altered mice are pharmacological manipulated, are so far missing. However, they are desperately needed to clarify underlying reasons for these contradictions. Consistently, stimulation of either muscarinic (mainly M(1)) or nicotinic (predominantly α7) receptors was beneficial for learning and memory formation across all paradigms supporting the notion that research into the development and mechanisms of novel and better cholinomimetics may prove useful in the treatment of neurodegenerative or psychiatric disorders with cognitive endophenotypes.

Reward guides vision when it's your thing: trait reward-seeking in reward-mediated visual priming

Reward-related mesolimbic dopamine is thought to play an important role in guiding animal behaviour, biasing approach towards potentially beneficial environmental stimuli and away from objects unlikely to garner positive outcome. This is considered to result in part from an impact on perceptual and attentional processes: dopamine initiates a series of cognitive events that result in the priming of reward-associated perceptual features. We have provided behavioural and electrophysiological evidence that this mechanism guides human vision in search, an effect we refer to as reward priming. We have also demonstrated that there is substantial individual variability in this effect. Here we show that behavioural differences in reward priming are predicted remarkably well by a personality index that captures the degree to which a person's behaviour is driven by reward outcome. Participants with reward-seeking personalities are found to be those who allocate visual resources to objects characterized by reward-associated visual features. These results add to a rapidly developing literature demonstrating the crucial role reward plays in attentional control. They additionally illustrate the striking impact personality traits can have on low-level cognitive processes like perception and selective attention.

Sex-dependent antipsychotic capacity of 17β-estradiol in the latent inhibition model: a typical antipsychotic drug in both sexes, atypical antipsychotic drug in males

The estrogen hypothesis of schizophrenia suggests that estrogen is a natural neuroprotector in women and that exogenous estrogen may have antipsychotic potential, but results of clinical studies have been inconsistent. We have recently shown using the latent inhibition (LI) model of schizophrenia that 17β-estradiol exerts antipsychotic activity in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. The present study sought to extend the characterization of the antipsychotic action of 17β-estradiol (10, 50 and 150 μg/kg) by testing its capacity to reverse amphetamine- and MK-801-induced LI aberrations in gonadally intact female and male rats. No-drug controls of both sexes showed LI, ie, reduced efficacy of a previously non-reinforced stimulus to gain behavioral control when paired with reinforcement, if conditioned with two but not five tone-shock pairings. In both sexes, amphetamine (1 mg/kg) and MK-801 (50 μg/kg) produced disruption (under weak conditioning) and persistence (under strong conditioning) of LI, modeling positive and negative/cognitive symptoms, respectively. 17β-estradiol at 50 and 150 μg/kg potentiated LI under strong conditioning and reversed amphetamine-induced LI disruption in both males and females, mimicking the action of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs (APDs) in the LI model. 17β-estradiol also reversed MK-induced persistent LI, an effect mimicking atypical APDs and NMDA receptor enhancers, but this effect was observed in males and OVX females but not in intact females. These findings indicate that in the LI model, 17β-estradiol exerts a clear-cut antipsychotic activity in both sexes and, remarkably, is more efficacious in males and OVX females where it also exerts activity considered predictive of anti-negative/cognitive symptoms.

Involvement of different types of dopamine receptors in the formation of latent inhibition of a conditioned passive avoidance reaction in rats

The effects of systemic injections of dopaminergic agents on normal and weak latent inhibition of a conditioned passive avoidance reaction were studied in rats. Formation of normal latent inhibition was induced using 20 pre-exposures to a contextual conditioned stimulus prior to training. Weak latent inhibition was modeled using 10 pre-exposures. The effects of the D(2)/D(3) receptor agonist quinpirole (1 mg/kg) and the D(1) receptor agonist SKF 38393 (1 mg/kg) separately and in combination with haloperidol (0.5 mg/kg) were tested. Quinpirole induced the expression of normal latent inhibition but had no effect on weak latent inhibition. Activation of D(1) receptors with SKF 38393 had no effect on the formation of latent inhibition regardless of the number of pre-exposures. Haloperidol significantly strengthened weak latent inhibition but impaired normal latent inhibition. Administration of haloperidol in combination with SKF 38393 prevented this impairment. These results suggest that while D(1) receptors have no influence as an independent substrate on the formation of latent inhibition, activation of these receptors is required for the complete manifestation of D(2)-mediated modulation of this process.

Mouse behavioral endophenotypes for schizophrenia

An endophenotype is a heritable trait that is generally considered to be more highly, associated with a gene-based neurological deficit than a disease phenotype itself. Such, endophenotypic deficits may therefore be observed in the non-affected relatives of disease patients. Once endophenotypes have been established for a given illness, such as schizophrenia, mechanisms of, action may then be established and treatment options developed in order to target such measures. The, current paper describes and assesses the merits and limitations of utilizing behavioral and, electrophysiological endophenotypes of schizophrenia in mice. Such endophenotypic deficits include: decreased auditory event related potential (ERP) amplitude and gating (specifically, that of the P20, N40, P80 and P120); impaired mismatch negativity (MMN); changes in theta and gamma frequency, analyses; decreased pre-pulse inhibition (PPI); impaired working and episodic memories (for instance, novel object recognition [NOR], contextual and cued fear conditioning, latent inhibition, Morris and, radial arm maze identification and nose poke); sociability; and locomotor activity. A variety of, pharmacological treatments, including ketamine, MK-801 and phencyclidine (PCP) can be used to, induce some of the deficits described above, and numerous transgenic mouse strains have been, developed to address the mechanisms responsible for such endophenotypic differences. We also, address the viability and validity of using such measures regarding their potential clinical implications, and suggest several practices that could increase the translatability of preclinical data.

Lesions to the ventral, but not the dorsal, medial prefrontal cortex enhance latent inhibition

The acquisition of a conditioned response to a stimulus when it is paired with a reinforcer is retarded if the stimulus has previously been repeatedly pre-exposed in the absence of the reinforcer. This effect, called latent inhibition, has previously been found to be insensitive to lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats. Using an on-baseline conditioned emotional response procedure, which is especially sensitive to small variations in the absolute magnitude of latent inhibition, we found increased latent inhibition following excitotoxic lesions of the mPFC (Experiment 1) or the ventral mPFC alone (Experiment 2) as compared with sham-operated control rats. Lesions restricted to the dorsal mPFC, however, were without effect (Experiment 2). These results are consistent with those of experiments employing another type of interference procedure, extinction. Together, these findings suggest that when different contingencies between a stimulus and a reinforcer are established in separate learning phases, lesions to the ventral mPFC result in increased interference between first-learned and second-learned contingencies. As a consequence, retrieval of the second-learned contingency is impaired, and performance is dominated by the first-learned contingency. These findings are discussed in light of the use of latent inhibition to model cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Disruption of latent inhibition induced by ovariectomy can be reversed by estradiol and clozapine as well as by co-administration of haloperidol with estradiol but not by haloperidol alone

INTRODUCTION

Epidemiological and clinical life cycle studies have indicated that the more favorable illness course and the better response to antipsychotic drugs (APDs) in women with schizophrenia correlate with high levels of estrogen, whereas increased vulnerability to exacerbation and relapse and reduced sensitivity to treatment are associated with low estrogen levels. Accordingly, the estrogen hypothesis of schizophrenia proposes that estrogen has a neuroprotective effect in women vulnerable to schizophrenia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Latent inhibition (LI), the capacity to ignore stimuli that received nonreinforced preexposure prior to conditioning, is disrupted in acute schizophrenia patients and in rats and humans treated with the psychosis inducing drug amphetamine. Disruption of LI is reversible by typical and atypical APDs. The present study tested whether low levels of estrogen induced by ovariectomy (OVX) would lead to disruption of LI in female rats and whether such disruption would be normalized by estrogen replacement treatment and/or APDs.

RESULTS

Results showed that OVX led to LI disruption, which was reversed by 17beta-estradiol (150 microg/kg) and the atypical APD clozapine (5 mg/kg), but not by the typical APD haloperidol (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 mg/kg). Haloperidol regained efficacy when administered with 17beta-estradiol (50 microg/kg).

DISCUSSION

These results provide the first demonstration in rats that low levels of hormones can induce a pro-psychotic state that is resistant to at least typical antipsychotic treatment. This constellation may mimic states seen in schizophrenic women during periods associated with low levels of hormones such as the menopause.

BEHAVIORAL INHIBITION SYSTEM (BIS) STRENGTH AND TRAIT DOMINANCE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH AFFECTIVE RESPONSE AND PERSPECTIVE TAKING WHEN VIEWING DYADIC INTERACTIONS

The neurophysiology underlying the Behavioral Activation and Behavioral Inhibition Systems (BAS and BIS) and the impact of the strength of these systems on affective processing have received increased attention over the last 25 years. Specifically, left-frontal brain regions have been implicated in BAS strength as well as the experience of positive-approach affect (such as happiness). Conversely, BIS strength and negative-avoidance affect (such as fear) appear to be modulated by right-frontal brain regions. Taken together, it is not surprising that BAS and BIS strength have been associated with positive and negative affective biases, respectively, to emotional stimuli that do not involve extensive human interaction. The present investigation was designed to extend these findings by assessing the relationship between BAS and BIS strength on the perception of emotional interactions. Participants (n = 67) were shown four 2-min film clips that depict an individual exerting dominance over one or more other individuals. Each participant rated the clips with regard to valence, arousal, and dominance parameters, and then indicated the person(s) in the movie with whom they identified (i.e., the dominant individual or submissive individual[s]). Consistent with a priori hypotheses, persons identifying with the submissive character scored significantly higher on BIS sensitivity. BAS strength and BIS/BAS ratio, conversely, were not associated with character identification. Also as predicted, identification with the dominant movie character was associated with increased positive affect and feelings of dominance. Interestingly, although not hypothesized, trait dominance was also associated with character identification by virtue of being positively associated with BAS and PA and negatively associated with BIS and NA.

Pro-cognitive and antipsychotic efficacy of the alpha7 nicotinic partial agonist SSR180711 in pharmacological and neurodevelopmental latent inhibition models of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia symptoms can be segregated into positive, negative and cognitive, which exhibit differential sensitivity to drug treatments. Accumulating evidence points to efficacy of alpha7 nicotinic receptor (nAChR) agonists for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia but their activity against positive symptoms is thought to be minimal. The present study examined potential pro-cognitive and antipsychotic activity of the novel selective alpha7 nAChR partial agonist SSR180711 using the latent inhibition (LI) model. LI is the reduced efficacy of a previously non-reinforced stimulus to gain behavioral control when paired with reinforcement, compared with a novel stimulus. Here, no-drug controls displayed LI if non-reinforced pre-exposure to a tone was followed by weak but not strong conditioning (2 vs 5 tone-shock pairings). MK801 (0.05 mg/kg, i.p.) -treated rats as well as rats neonatally treated with nitric oxide synthase inhibitor L-NoArg (10 mg/kg, s.c.) on postnatal days 4-5, persisted in displaying LI with strong conditioning, whereas amphetamine (1 mg/kg) -treated rats failed to show LI with weak conditioning. SSR180711 (0.3, 1, 3 mg/kg, i.p.) was able to alleviate abnormally persistent LI produced by acute MK801 and neonatal L-NoArg; these models are believed to model cognitive aspects of schizophrenia and activity here was consistent with previous findings with alpha7-nAChR agonists. In addition, unexpectedly, SSR180711 (1, 3 mg/kg, i.p.) potentiated LI with strong conditioning in no-drug controls and reversed amphetamine-induced LI disruption, two effects considered predictive of activity against positive symptoms of schizophrenia. These findings suggest that SSR180711 may be beneficial not only for the treatment of cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, as reported multiple times previously, but also positive symptoms.

Enhanced latent inhibition in dopamine receptor-deficient mice is sex-specific for the D1 but not D2 receptor subtype: implications for antipsychotic drug action

Latent inhibition (LI) is reduced learning to a stimulus that has previously been experienced without consequence. It is an important model of abnormal allocation of salience to irrelevant information in patients with schizophrenia. In rodents LI is abolished by psychotomimetic drugs and in experimental conditions where LI is low in controls, its expression is enhanced by antipsychotic drugs with activity at dopamine (DA) receptors. It is however unclear what the independent contributions of DA receptor subtypes are to these effects. This study therefore examined LI in congenic DA D1 and D2 receptor knockout (D1 KO and D2 KO) mice. Conditioned suppression of drinking was used as the measure of learning in the LI procedure. Both male and female DA D2 KO mice showed clear enhancement of LI reproducing antipsychotic drug effects in the model. Unexpectedly, enhancement was also seen in D1 KO female mice but not in D1 KO male mice. This sex-specific pattern was not replicated in locomotor or motor coordination tasks nor in the effect of DA KOs on baseline learning in control groups indicating some specificity of the effect to LI. These data suggest that the dopaminergic mechanism underlying LI potentiation and possibly antipsychotic action may differ between the sexes, being mediated by D2 receptors in males but by both D1 and D2 receptors in females. These data suggest that the DA D1 receptor may prove an important target for understanding sex differences in the mechanisms of action of antipsychotic drugs and in the aetiology of aberrant salience allocation in schizophrenia.

Methylphenidate and nicotine focus responding to an informative discrete CS over successive sessions of appetitive conditioning

Methylphenidate (MP) and nicotine would be expected to improve associative learning, though previous evidence suggests that they should reduce the selectivity with which associations are formed. Here we tested their effects on learning the association between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and food (unconditioned stimulus, UCS) in male Wistar rats. The UCS was delivered immediately (0 s) following CS offset or after a 10 s trace. In addition to the measures of discrete CS conditioning, contextual and trace responding was measured in the inter-trial- and the inter-stimulus-interval, respectively. In all cases, conditioning was measured as nose poking for food. Both MP and nicotine improved the acquisition of discrete cue conditioning. Acquisition was accelerated (compared to saline) under 5 but not 1 mg/kg MP and 0.6, but not 0.4 mg/kg nicotine. In each case, this effect was observed in 0 s but not 10 s conditioned groups. For comparison, some earlier published data obtained following the same procedure with D-amphetamine were re-analysed in the same way. Amphetamine similarly improved conditioning in the 0 s group, in this case at 0.5, but not 1.5 mg/kg. Thus three different dopamine agonists increased the ability to focus responding to CS presentations over successive sessions of appetitive acquisition.

The formation of abnormal associations in schizophrenia: neural and behavioral evidence

It is hypothesized that due to an abnormal functioning of the reward system patients with schizophrenia form context-inappropriate associations. It has been shown that the dopamine target regions, especially the ventral striatum, are critical in the formation of reward associations. We wanted to examine how the ventral striatum responds as patients learn reward-related associations and how this neural response is linked to objective and subjective behavioral measures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses were examined using aversive Pavlovian learning in 13 medicated patients with schizophrenia and 13 matched healthy controls. Colored circles served as conditioned stimulus (CS+) while a loud, individually adjusted, noise served as the unconditioned stimulus. Circles of another color served as neutral comparators (CS-). Subjective indices were assessed by a post-scan self-report, and galvanic skin responses (GSR) were used as objective measures of associative learning. fMRI data were analyzed using a random effects model in SPM2. Patients showed inappropriately strong activations in the ventral striatum in response to the neutral stimulus (CS-) as compared to the healthy controls. Consistent with this neural evidence of aberrant learning, patients also showed evidence of abnormal learning by self-report and as indexed by GSR. The main finding here is that patients with schizophrenia, when exposed to neutral stimuli in a threatening situation, show an abnormal pattern of learning. The aberrant activations and response are consistent with the idea that patients aberrantly assign motivational salience to neutral stimuli, and this process may be one of the aberrations that predisposes them to psychosis.

Abnormal prediction error is associated with negative and depressive symptoms in schizophrenia

Prediction error in learning is where learning occurs to the degree to which an outcome consequent to a stimulus is surprising. It has been suggested that abnormal use of prediction error in schizophrenia may underlie the formation of inappropriate associations giving rise to psychotic symptoms. Kamin blocking is a phenomenon that demonstrates prediction error. Kamin blocking is shown where prior learning about a stimulus A paired with an outcome retards learning about a stimulus B when presented subsequently as part of a stimulus compound AB paired with the same outcome. Prior studies have indicated reduced Kamin blocking in schizophrenia specifically in non-paranoid patients. It is however unclear how reduced Kamin blocking is associated with specific symptoms in schizophrenia. The present study examined Kamin blocking performance in a high functioning community-based sample of 34 people with schizophrenia and 48 controls closely matched for pre-morbid IQ. In these patients we measured Kamin blocking and symptoms using positive and negative symptom scales (PANSS) and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). Results confirmed that people with schizophrenia had significantly reduced Kamin blocking. Kamin blocking performance was associated with negative and depressive symptoms. These associations with symptoms were crucially not found with baseline associative learning or unblocking measures, confirming specificity to the Kamin blocking effect. These data demonstrate first that abnormal prediction error as assessed in the Kamin blocking task is associated with negative and depressive symptoms rather than positive symptoms in high functioning schizophrenia patients. Second this strongly suggests that reduced Kamin blocking may be useful as an animal model of specific relevance to negative and depressive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Scopolamine induces disruption of latent inhibition which is prevented by antipsychotic drugs and an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor

The fact that muscarinic antagonists may evoke a psychotic state ('antimuscarinic psychosis'), along with findings of cholinergic alterations in schizophrenia, have kindled an interest in the involvement of the cholinergic system in this disorder. Latent inhibition (LI) is a cross-species phenomenon manifested as a poorer conditioning of a stimulus seen when the stage of conditioning is preceded by a stage of repeated nonreinforced pre-exposure to that stimulus, and is considered to index the capacity to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Amphetamine-induced LI disruption and its reversal by antipsychotic drugs (APDs) is a well-established model of positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Here, we tested whether the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine would disrupt LI and whether such disruption would be reversed by APDs and by the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine. The results showed that scopolamine at doses of 0.15 and 0.5 mg/kg disrupted LI, and that this effect was due to the action of the drug in the pre-exposure stage, suggesting a role of muscarinic transmission in attentional processes underlying LI. Both the typical and the atypical APDs, haloperidol and clozapine, reversed scopolamine-induced LI disruption when given in conditioning or in both stages, but not in pre-exposure, indicating that the mechanism of antipsychotic action in this model is independent of the mechanism of action of the propsychotic drug. Scopolamine-induced LI disruption was reversed by physostigmine (0.05 and 0.15 mg/kg), which was ineffective in reversing amphetamine-induced LI disruption, pointing to distinct mechanisms underlying LI disruption by these two propsychotic drugs. The latter was further supported by the finding that unlike amphetamine, the LI-disrupting doses of scopolamine did not affect activity levels. We propose scopolamine-induced LI disruption as a model of cholinergic-related positive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Double dissociation of the effects of selective nucleus accumbens core and shell lesions on impulsive-choice behaviour and salience learning in rats

The nucleus accumbens can be subdivided into at least two anatomically distinct subregions: a dorsolateral 'core' and a ventromedial 'shell', and this distinction may extend to a functional dissociation. Here, we contrasted the effects of selective excitotoxic core and medial shell lesions on impulsive-choice behaviour using a delayed reward choice paradigm and a differential reward for low rates of responding (DRL) test, against a form of salience learning known as latent inhibition (LI). Core lesions led to enhanced impulsive choices as evidenced by a more pronounced shift from choosing a continuously reinforced lever to a partially reinforced lever, when a delay between lever press and reward delivery was imposed selectively on the former. The core lesions also impaired performance on a DRL task that required withholding the response for a fixed period of time in order to earn a reward. Medial shell lesions had no effect on these two tasks, but abolished the LI effect, as revealed by the failure of stimulus pre-exposure to retard subsequent conditioning to that stimulus in an active avoidance procedure in the lesioned animals. As expected, selective core lesions spared LI. The double dissociations demonstrated here support a functional segregation between nucleus accumbens core and shell, and add weight to the hypothesis that the core, but not the shell, subregion of the nucleus accumbens is preferentially involved in the control of choice behaviour under delayed reinforcement conditions and in the inhibitory control of goal-directed behaviour.

Latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion is not disrupted, but can be enhanced, by selective nucleus accumbens shell lesions in rats

Latent inhibition is a form of negative priming in which repeated non-reinforced pre-exposures to a stimulus retard subsequent learning about the predictive significance of that stimulus. The nucleus accumbens shell and the anatomical projection it receives from the hippocampal formation have been attributed a pivotal role in the control or regulation of latent inhibition expression. A number of studies in rats have demonstrated the efficacy of selective shell lesions to disrupt latent inhibition in different associative learning paradigms, including conditioned active avoidance and conditioned emotional response. Here, we extended the test to the conditioned taste aversion paradigm, in which the effect of direct hippocampal damage on latent inhibition remains controversial. We demonstrated the expected effect of selective shell lesions on latent inhibition of conditioned emotional response and of conditioned active avoidance, before evaluating in a separate cohort of rats the effect of comparable selective lesions on latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion: a null effect of the lesions was first obtained using parameters known to be sensitive to amphetamine treatment, then an enhancement of latent inhibition was revealed with a modified conditioned taste aversion procedure. Our results show that depending on the associative learning paradigm chosen, shell lesions can disrupt or enhance the expression of latent inhibition; and the pattern is reminiscent of that seen following hippocampal damage.

Brain-behaviour relationships in latent inhibition: a computational model

In a series of studies, we applied a neural network to study the neural bases of latent inhibition. We first designed a model able to handle behavioral data and then we investigated whether structures and neural elements in the brain were able to carry out the operations described by network. We demonstrated that the network was able to describe many of the behavioral properties of LI, and elucidate the effects of several manipulations of the dopaminergic system, the hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens on LI, as well as some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. The results support the idea that a 'conceptual nervous system' can be successfully used to relate brain and behavior.

The role of dopamine in conditioning and latent inhibition: what, when, where and how?

It is well established that dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens (NAC) in animals in rewarding or reinforcing situations, and widely believed that this release is the substrate of, or at least closely related to, the experience of reward. The demonstration of conditioned release of dopamine by stimuli conditioned to primary rewards has reinforced this view. However, a number of observations do not sit comfortably with this interpretation, most notably that dopamine is released equally effectively in NAC by aversive stimuli, and stimuli conditioned to them. Furthermore, additional release of dopamine is seen during conditioning, even if motivational stimuli of either type are not involved. It is suggested here that one important action of NAC dopamine release is to restore the salience of potential conditioned stimuli, when this has been reduced by prior un-reinforced experience. The paradigm of latent inhibition (LI) demonstrates a behavioural effect of this type, and extensive studies on the role of dopamine in LI have been undertaken by us and others. Those studies are reviewed here, together with some previously unpublished data, to demonstrate that (1) amphetamine disruption of LI is indeed a function of calcium-dependant dopamine release in the NAC at the time of conditioning; (2) other drugs acting on LI via changes in dopamine transmission act at the same locus; (3) the disruptive effect of indirect dopamine agonists on LI can be prevented by either D-1 selective receptor antagonists, or D-2 selective receptor antagonists. It is concluded that dopamine release in these very varied behavioural contexts (reward, punishment, conditioning, modulation of salience) must be differentiated in some way, and that this should be investigated. An alternative explanation, if they are not differentiated, would be that the release in fact does have the same functional significance in each case. We suggest that this common significance might be the broadening of attention to take in potentially conditionable stimuli, which have previously been devalued.

Midbrain muscarinic receptor mechanisms underlying regulation of mesoaccumbens and nigrostriatal dopaminergic transmission in the rat

Laterodorsal (LDT) and pedunculopontine (PPT) tegmental nuclei in the mesopontine project cholinergic inputs to the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), respectively, to directly and indirectly influence the activity of dopamine neuronal cells via actions on muscarinic and nicotinic receptors. The present study investigated the role of midbrain muscarinic receptors in the functional modulation of VTA and SNc dopamine cell activity as reflected by alterations in, respectively, nucleus accumbens (NAc) and striataldopamine efflux. In vivo chronoamperometry was used to measure changes in basal dopamine efflux via stearate-graphite paste electrodes implanted unilaterally in the NAc or striatum of urethane-anaesthetized rats, following blockade or activation of, respectively, VTA or SNc muscarinic receptors. Intra-VTA or -SNc infusion of the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine (200 microg/microL) reduced, respectively, NAc and striatal dopamine efflux while infusion of the muscarinic and nicotinic agonist carbachol (0.5 microg/microL) or the prototypical muscarinic agonist muscarine (0.5 microg/microL) increased NAc and striatal dopamine efflux. Transient decreases in dopamine efflux preceded these increases selectively in the striatum, suggesting a reduction in excitatory or increase in inhibitory drive to the SNc by preferential activation of M3 muscarinic receptors on GABA interneurons and glutamatergic inputs. This was confirmed by showing that selective blockade of M3 receptors with p-F-HHSiD (0.5 microg/microL) increased striatal, but not NAc, dopamine efflux. Together, these findings suggest that midbrain muscarinic receptors, probably M5 subtypes on VTA and SNc dopamine neurons, contribute to the tonic excitatory regulation of forebrain basal dopamine transmission whereas presynaptic M3 receptors serve to counter excessive excitation of nigral dopamine cell activity.

Disruption of learned irrelevance in acute schizophrenia in a novel continuous within-subject paradigm suitable for fMRI

Learned irrelevance (LIrr) is closely related to latent inhibition (LI). In LI a to-be-conditioned stimulus (CS) is prexposed alone prior to the opportunity to learn an association between the CS and an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In LIrr preexposure consists of intermixed presentations of both CS and UCS in a random relationship to each other. In both paradigms preexposure leads in normal subjects to reduced or retarded learning of the CS-UCS association. Acute schizophrenics fail to show LI. LI is usually demonstrated as a one-off, between-groups difference in trials to learning, so posing problems for neuroimaging. We have developed a novel, continuous, within-subject paradigm in which normal subjects show robust and repeated LIrr. We show that this paradigm is suitable for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and gives rise, in normal subjects, to activation in the hippocampal formation, consistent with data from animal experiments on LI. We also report, consistent with previous studies of LI, loss (indeed, significant reversal) of LIrr in acute (first 2 weeks of current psychotic episode) schizophrenics. Chronic schizophrenics failed to demonstrate learning, precluding measurement in this group of LIrr. These findings establish the likely value of the new paradigm for neuroimaging studies of attentional dysfunction in acute schizophrenia.

Cognitive deficits caused by late gestational disruption of neurogenesis in rats: a preclinical model of schizophrenia

Late gestational disruption of neurogenesis in rats has been shown to induce behavioral abnormalities thought to mimic aspects of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Furthermore, it has been shown that the morphological changes produced by the perturbation are relevant to schizophrenia with reduced thickness of the hippocampus, thalamus, and cortical regions. In addition to the positive and negative symptoms, schizophrenia is associated with deficits in a wide variety of cognitive domains. In the present studies, we assessed whether the cognitive deficits are modeled by disruption of neurogenesis late during gestation (gestational day 17) in the rat. In the battery of tests utilized, we describe that rats in which neurogenesis was disrupted have deficits in a reversal-learning paradigm of the Morris water maze and in object recognition, and that they exhibit perseveration in the Porsolt forced swimming test. Additionally, we found deficient associative learning in an acquisition of an active avoidance paradigm and deficits in latent inhibition. No deficits were observed in the reference memory version of the Morris water maze and in a non-match-to position experiment, showing that the deficits are limited to certain aspects of cognition.

Systemic or intra-accumbens injection of D-amphetamine delays habituation to a tone stimulus in rats

Dopamine release within the nucleus accumbens shell is suggested to control the salience of environmental stimuli, and previous research has shown that the indirect dopamine agonist D-amphetamine can alter the salience of both aversive and neutral stimuli. In experiment 1, the effect of systemic injection of D-amphetamine (0.5, 1 mg/kg) on fear conditioning to a tone was assessed in an 'off-baseline' conditioned suppression procedure using several footshock intensities. Although the effects of amphetamine on conditioning were unclear, the results indicated a deficit of simple tone habituation in amphetamine-treated rats. In experiment 2, habituation of the orienting reaction to a tone was assessed by the progressive reduction of lick suppression upon repeated presentation of the auditory stimulus. D-Amphetamine delayed tone habituation, whether administered systemically (0.5, 1 mg/kg) or into the nucleus accumbens shell (3, 10 microg/0.5 microl). These data are consistent with electrophysiological and neurochemical data demonstrating the role of nucleus accumbens dopamine in novelty processing. The relevance of the data to latent inhibition is discussed.