Me. Bardgett et al., THE EFFECTS OF CHRONIC CORTICOSTERONE ON MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN THE PLATFORM MAZE TASK, Physiology & behavior, 59(6), 1996, pp. 1111-1115
Acquisition and reversal of a memory task dependent on hippocampal int
egrity were assessed in rats following chronic corticosterone treatmen
t. Young adult male rats were injected daily with corticosterone (10 m
g/kg, SC) for 8 weeks. Memory was assessed during the last week of tre
atment with an elevated platform maze. During acquisition trials, cort
icosterone-treated rats did not differ from vehicle-treated controls i
n either the location of first hole chosen nor in the latency to locat
e the escape hole. In the reversal trials, when the position of the es
cape hole was rotated 135 degrees, both groups successfully reversed t
heir responses without persevering towards the previously rewarded esc
ape hole location. These findings suggest that, despite the probabilit
y of corticosterone-induced changes in hippocampal physiology, chronic
corticosterone treatment does not adversely affect performance in a m
emory task dependent on hippocampal integrity.