EFFECTS OF CONVULSANT AND ANTICONVULSANT AGENTS ON MEMORY IN SQUIRREL-MONKEYS

1. It has been reported that subconvulsive doses of convulsant agents such as strychnine and pentylenetetrazole can enhance memory in rodent s studied under various behavioral procedures. The present study was d esigned to determine if similar results might be obtained in squirrel monkeys. 2. Responding by squirrel monkeys was maintained by food pres entation under a repeated acquisition of behavioral chains procedure. Each subject acquired a different three-response chain each session. 3 . Sequence completions were reinforced under a fixed-ratio 5 schedule (FR 5) and errors produced a brief timeout. After the subject reached a predetermined acquisition criterion, the session was stopped and a 2 4 hr delay was interposed. Following the delay, the subject was retest ed on the same discrimination and retention was quantified as percent savings. 4. When administered immediately after the subject reached th e acquisition criterion, strychnine (0.0056 - 0.18 mg/kg) and pentylen etetrazole (0.32 - 42 mg/kg) neither enhanced nor disrupted percent sa vings under the 24 hour delay. Similarly, the delta opioid agonist, BW 373U86 (0.0056 - 3.2 mg/kg) piperazinyl)-3-hydroxybenzyl)-N,N-diethylb enzamide dihydrochloride], had little or no effect on percent savings following a 24 hr delay. This was true even at doses of BW373U86 which produced convulsions. In contrast, triazolam (1 - 1.8 mg/kg) decrease d percent savings following the 24 hr delay at doses which had little or no effect on response rate. 5. These results suggest that at subcon vulsive doses, convulsant agents have little or no effect on memory st orage, while at higher doses agents such as triazolam can disrupt memo ry processes in squirrel monkeys.