Hyperthermia Impairs Retention of an Overtrained Spatial Task in the Morris Water Maze

Abstract

Fifteen rats were trained to learn the location of a spatially fixed platform hidden in a Morris water maze (40 + or - 2 C). Then retention of the spatial task was assessed immediately after raising core body temperature (T sub c) to 42, 40 or 37 C (the normothermic control). The hyperthermic treatment order was counterbalanced according to a Latin-square design. Hyperthermia at 42 C T sub c significantly impaired the retention of spatial performance. Hyperthermic animals were cooled to normothermia (T sub c = 37 C) and spatial performance tested again. Recooling resulted in a complete recovery of spatial performance. These results demonstrate that hyperthermia-induced amnesia can be obtained on an overtrained spatial mapping strategy and recooling initiates recovery of spatial performance. Keywords: Retention psychology.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 04, 1988
Accession Number
ADA201064

Entities

People

  • D. I. Welch
  • L. Gallego
  • T. M. Rauch

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Acquisition
  • Amnesia
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Animals
  • Body Temperature
  • Classification
  • Classified Materials
  • Clearances
  • Combinatorial Analysis
  • Errors
  • Hyperthermia
  • Laboratory Animals
  • Materials
  • Military Research
  • Neurons
  • Security

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Cardiovascular Physiology
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.