Within-Strain Facilitation and Disruption of Avoidance Learning by Picrotoxin

Dominic Zerbolio, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Abstract

Eighty 60 day old Swiss Webster mice, run 10 trials a day for four consecutive days in a wheel turn avoidance situation were divided into four groups of 20 Ss each. All Ss were injected with either Saline, 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 mg/Kg of Picrotoxin at the end of each day’s session. Results indicate that Picrotoxin can facilitate or disrupt the acquisition of the CAR. A significant curvilinear trend for avoidance performance vs drug dose level was found indicating that low and moderate dosages produce increasing facilitation whereas high dosages produce debilitation of performance. The results are consistant with the perseveration-consolidation model of memory formation.