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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 67-71 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
Volume | 339 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 13 Mar 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Hippocampus
- Intermittent hypoxia
- Pre-training
- Sleep apnea
- Spatial learning
- cAMP-response element binding protein
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience