EFFECTS OF CHRONIC ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION OR DIAZEPAM ADMINISTRATION ON ITEM RECOGNITION AND TEMPORAL ORDERING IN A SPATIAL WORKING-MEMORY TASK IN MICE

This study was aimed at determining the effects of either Diazepam adm inistration or chronic alcohol consumption (CAC) on spatial memory mea sured by concurrent discriminations in an eight arm radial maze using mice as subjects. Two different protocols involving a non-matching rul e were used to evaluate either temporal order (recurrent items) or ite m recognition (non-recurrent items). Results showed that both Diazepam administration and CAC produced a memory deficit which was primarily observed in the temporal task, whereas item recognition was spared. Th ese data show that Diazepam and CAC produced similar memory impairment s. Thus, our study stressed the potential importance of the GABA/BDZ d ysfunction in the production of organic amnesia of alcoholic origin. T he overall analysis of the data suggests that. both CAC and Diazepam i njections would impair forms of memory sustained by automatic or incid ental learning.