![]() Then, each animal was gently placed in the white compartment and after 5 s the guillotine door was opened and the animal was allowed to enter the dark module (Azami et al., 2010).Īnimals that waited more than 300 s to enter the dark chamber were excluded from the experiment. Intermit-tent electric shocks (50 Hz, 3 s, 1.5 mA intensity) were delivered to the grid floor of the dark compartment by an isolate stimulator.Īll animals were allowed to habituate in the experimental room for at least 30 min before the experiments. The walls and floor of one compartment consisted of white opaque resin and the walls of the other one was dark. There was a guillotine door in the middle of a dividing wall. Step-through inhibitory avoidance apparatus consisted of two boxes of the same size (20 × 20 × 30 cm). Inhibitory Avoidance Apparatus (Shuttle box) O'Keefe, 1982).īecause MDMA treatment lead to toxicity of hippocampus and it involves in navigation of the MWM and passive avoidance tasks, the aims of this study were to evaluate the acute and chronic effects of MDMA on learning and spatial memory in the passive avoidance and MWM tasks.Ģ.2. The key brain regions involved in navigation in the Morris water maze task include the striatum, the frontal cortex, and especially the hippocampus (R. The Morris water navigation task, also known as the Morris water maze, is a behavioral procedure widely used to study learning and spatial memory function. The hippocampus plays an important role in the contextual memory injuries of the hippocampus decrease the performance of passive avoidance learning (Hirsh, 1974). The Passive avoidance learning is believed to be based on the contextual memory, which is associated with the place and the event of “being given the electric shock in the dark box”. There are some tasks to evaluate learning and memory functions. Several studies reported acute effect of single or multiple doses of MDMA on the learning and spatial memory functions (Asi et al., 2011 Soleimani Asl et al., 2011 Vorhees, Reed, Skelton, & Williams, 2004), but no study have examined the chronic effects of MDMA on the memory. Furthermore, different doses of MDMA impaired locomotor activity and allocentric learning dose-dependently and acutely in rats (Vorhees et al., 2009). ![]() Previous studies reported that MDMA treatment lead to decrease of novel object recognition and anxiety in the elevated plus maze (Piper, Fraiman, & Meyer, 2005). ![]() Serotonin has a modulatory effect on long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus (Slivka, Mytilineou, & Cohen, 1987). It has been shown that MDMA treatment causes production of hydroxyl radicals and lipid peroxidation and induces serotonergic neurotoxicity (J. Sprague, Preston, Leifheit, & Woodside, 2003 Zakzanis & Campbell, 2006). Several evidences show that central executive and decision- making skills alter in persistent MDMA users (Bolla, McCann, & Ricaurte, 1998 J. MDMA administration was found to decrease serotonin in the prefrontal cortex, neostriatum, and hippocampus, which are important structures in learning and spatial memory functions (Able, Gudelsky, Vorhees, & Williams, 2006 Kalechstein, De La Garza II, Mahoney III, Fantegrossi, & Newton, 2007). MDMA causes acute release of serotonin from nerve endings, binds to the SERT, and inhibits serotonin reuptake (Simantov, 2004). It has been reported that MDMA has neurotoxic effects on serotonergic, dopaminergic, and adrenergic endings with highest affinity to serotonergic transporter (SERT), and 5- hydroxytryptamine 2 (5-HT2) receptor (Sarkar & Schmued, 2010). It can produce a set of behaviors referred to serotonin behavioral syndrome (Lyles & Cadet, 2003). MDMA causes heightened sense of empathy, feeling of closeness toward others, and elevated mood (Farre et al., 2004). ![]() Ecstasy or 3, 4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic amphetamine analog used as a recreational drug.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |