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Cocaine self-administration improves performance in a highly demanding water maze task

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Abstract

Rationale

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is considered to be a cellular substrate of learning and memory. Indeed, the involvement of LTP-like mechanisms in spatial learning has consistently been demonstrated in the Morris water maze test. We have previously shown that hippocampal LTP in Lewis rats was modulated by cocaine self-administration, although the performance of cocaine-self-administered rats in the Morris water maze was not altered.

Objective

Given that the ease of the task previously used could have masked any possible effects of the cocaine-induced LTP enhancement on spatial learning, a new and more difficult water maze task was devised to address this issue.

Materials and methods

Animals self-administered cocaine (1 mg/kg) or saline under a fixed ratio 1 schedule of reinforcement for 22 days. Spatial learning was assessed in a difficult water maze task (four sessions, two trials per session with a 90-min intertrial interval), and spatial memory was also evaluated 48 h after training (a 90-s test). Additionally, reversal learning and perseverance were also studied.

Results

There was a reduced latency in finding the hidden platform during training, as well as improved memory of the platform location in cocaine-self-administered rats with respect to animals that self-administered saline. No differences were observed in reversal learning or perseverance between groups.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that cocaine self-administration facilitates learning and memory in the water maze test only when animals are submitted to highly demanding tasks, involving working memory or consolidation-like processes during the intertrial interval.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. C. Venero for helpful comments on the experimental design and R. Ferrado and A. Marcos for technical assistance. All the experiments were performed according to the European Union Laboratory Animal Care guidelines (86/609/ECC directive). The authors declare that they do not have financial interests to disclose. This research was supported by: the “Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas” 2001–2003 and 2004–2006, the “Instituto de Salud Carlos III—Red de Trastornos Adictivos” (G03/05), the “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia” (BSO2001-1099, SAF2004-08148), and the “Plan de Promoción de la Investigación en la UNED” grants. Cocaine hydrochloride was kindly provided by the Dirección General de Estupefacientes, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento Psicobiología, Facultad de Psicología, UNED, C/ Juan del Rosal no. 10, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    N. Del Olmo, A. Higuera-Matas, M. Miguéns, C. García-Lecumberri & E. Ambrosio

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  1. N. Del Olmo
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  2. A. Higuera-Matas
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  3. M. Miguéns
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  4. C. García-Lecumberri
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  5. E. Ambrosio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. Ambrosio.

Additional information

Del Olmo and Higuera-Matas contributed equally to this work.

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Del Olmo, N., Higuera-Matas, A., Miguéns, M. et al. Cocaine self-administration improves performance in a highly demanding water maze task. Psychopharmacology 195, 19–25 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-007-0873-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-007-0873-1

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