The formation of contextual or cued memories is dependent upon the integrity of medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala respectively. In this assay mice are trained to remember that a particular salient context (conditioned stimulus; CS) is associated with an aversive event, in this case a mild foot shock (the unconditioned stimulus, US). Animals that show good learning freeze upon re-presentation of the context (Contextual Fear Conditioning) or the tone (Cued Fear Conditioning).
Contextual Fear Conditioning: Aged mice (18mths of age) injected sub chronically with either rolipram or vehicle were placed into the conditioning chamber where they received a mild food shock. Twenty four hours later, mice were placed in the same chamber.
Rolipram-treated mice exhibit significantly higher freezing behavior compared to vehicle treated mice upon re-exposure to the same context, suggesting enhanced learning and memory.
Contextual Fear Conditioning in rats
Galantamine-treated rats exhibit significantly higher freezing behavior compared to vehicle treated rats upon re-exposure to the same context, suggesting enhanced learning and memory.
Cued Fear Conditioning in rats
Galantamine-treated rats exhibit significantly higher freezing behavior compared to vehicle treated rats upon re-exposure to the same context, suggesting enhanced learning and memory.
