Spatial pre-training attenuates hippocampal impairments in rats exposed to intermittent hypoxia

Barry W. Row, Aviv Goldbart, Evelyne Gozal, David Gozal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Intermittent hypoxia (IH), such as occurs in sleep apnea, is associated with increased apoptosis and neurobehavioral impairments in rats. To determine whether pre-training (P) modifies the effect of IH on spatial learning, adult male rats were trained in a spatial version of the water maze, exposed to IH or room air (RA) for 14 days, and then trained in a novel spatial task. P-RA had lower initial pathlengths than naive RA (N-RA), which were similar in P-IH and N-IH, indicating an adverse effect of IH on retention of behavioral strategies to solve the maze. However, P-IH acquired the later spatial task faster than N-IH. Pre-training was associated with increased phosphorylation of the cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) in the hippocampus. Further, IH-induced decreases in CREB phosphorylation were attenuated by pre-training. We conclude that prior exposure to the water maze behavioral requirements attenuates the behavioral deficits occurring after IH exposure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)67-71
Number of pages5
JournalNeuroscience Letters
Volume339
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Mar 2003
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Hippocampus
  • Intermittent hypoxia
  • Pre-training
  • Sleep apnea
  • Spatial learning
  • cAMP-response element binding protein

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Spatial pre-training attenuates hippocampal impairments in rats exposed to intermittent hypoxia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this