ACTH produces long-lasting recovery following partial extinction of an active avoidance response

Stephen T. Ahlers*, Rick Richardson, Chris West, David C. Riccio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent data suggest that ACTH administration produces recovery of an extinguished passive avoidance response at an unusually long injection-to-test interval. The present experiment sought to explore further the durability of recovery by examining the effect of ACTH following extinction of one-way active avoidance. Adult rats were injected with 16 IU ACTH, an equivalent volume of the ACTH vehicle gel, or saline 48 h after a previously learned active avoidance response was partially extinguished. Different groups from each treatment condition were tested 15 min, 24 h, or 7 days after injection. ACTH improved avoidance performance at all injection-to-test intervals relative to saline and vehicle gel injected controls. These data indicate that unlike reversal of other types of performance decrements, in which the effect of ACTH appears to be transient, administration of the hormone following an extinction treatment can produce enduring improvement of avoidance performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)102-107
Number of pages6
JournalBehavioral and Neural Biology
Volume51
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1989
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'ACTH produces long-lasting recovery following partial extinction of an active avoidance response'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this