Abstract
There is mounting evidence to support the concept that education is associated with the formation of a functional reserve in the brain, a process that appears to provide some protection against certain aspects of severe central nervous system disorders. The goal of this study was to examine whether learning prevents psychosis-like behaviour in an animal model of schizophrenia. A series of behavioural tasks were used to assess olfactory learning-induced protection against the effects of NMDA channel blocker, MK801. This blocker caused sensory-motor disturbances, spatial learning acquisition deficit, and swimming strategy alterations in pseudo-trained and naive rats, but had a considerably lesser effect on trained rats. In sharp contrast, olfactory learning provided no protection against d-amphetamine application. Our data support the notion that learning-induced protection against schizophrenic behaviour is maintained by non-NMDA-mediated enhanced activation of local connections in the relevant cortical networks.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 135-146 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | World Journal of Biological Psychiatry |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Animal model
- Memory
- NMDA receptors
- Olfactory learning
- Schizophrenia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Biological Psychiatry