GLUCOSE-ADMINISTRATION ATTENUATES HYPOTHERMIA-INDUCED RETROGRADE-AMNESIA IN RATS IN A TIME-DEPENDENT AND DOSE-DEPENDENT MANNER

It is well established that posttraining administrations of glucose en hance memory in a time- and dose-dependent manner. More recently, gluc ose has also been found to attenuate scopolamine-induced anterograde a mnesia, displaying the same time- and dose-response characteristics (S tone et al., 1988). In the present study, the use of glucose as an age nt for alleviation of hypothermia-induced retrograde amnesia was exami ned. In each experiment, animals were given a single trial of passive avoidance conditioning. Retrograde amnesia was induced through hypothe rmia immediately following training. All injections were given immedia tely following hypothermia treatment, and tests for fear retention wer e administered 24 h following training. In Experiment 1, the dose-resp onse effects of glucose (10, 100, or 400 mg/kg) were examined;in Exper iment 2, the time-dependent effect of 100 mg/kg of glucose administere d immediately, 1, or 2 h after hypothermia was examined. The results s how that glucose injections attenuate retrograde amnesia in both a dos e- and time-dependent manner. These results coincide with the growing body of evidence supporting the memory-modulating effects of glucose.