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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 13, 2006, 26(37):9520-9529; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2319-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Paradoxical Facilitation of Object Recognition Memory after Infusion of Scopolamine into Perirhinal Cortex: Implications for Cholinergic System Function

Boyer D. Winters, Lisa M. Saksida, and Timothy J. Bussey

Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Boyer D. Winters, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK. Email: bdw23{at}cam.ac.uk

The cholinergic system has long been implicated in learning and memory, yet its specific function remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of cortical acetylcholine in a rodent model of declarative memory by infusing the cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine into the rat perirhinal cortex during different stages (encoding, storage/consolidation, and retrieval) of the spontaneous object recognition task. Presample infusions of scopolamine significantly impaired object recognition compared with performance of the same group of rats on saline trials; this result is consistent with previous reports supporting a role for perirhinal acetylcholine in object information acquisition. Scopolamine infusions directly before the retrieval stage had no discernible effect on object recognition. However, postsample infusions of scopolamine with sample-to-infusion delays of up to 20 h significantly facilitated performance relative to postsample saline infusion trials. Additional analysis suggested that the infusion episode could cause retroactive or proactive interference with the sample object trace and that scopolamine blocked the acquisition of this interfering information, thereby facilitating recognition memory. This is, to our knowledge, the first example of improved recognition memory after administration of scopolamine. The overall pattern of results is inconsistent with a direct role for cortical acetylcholine in declarative memory consolidation or retrieval. Rather, the cholinergic input to the perirhinal cortex may facilitate acquisition by enhancing the cortical processing of incoming stimulus information.

Key words: acquisition; consolidation; declarative memory; interference; muscarinic; rat

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Received June 1, 2006; revised Aug. 1, 2006; accepted Aug. 10, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Boyer D. Winters, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK. Email: bdw23{at}cam.ac.uk

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. R.I. Barker and E. C. Warburton Critical role of the cholinergic system for object-in-place associative recognition memory Learn. Mem., December 30, 2008; 16(1): 8 - 11. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. E. Hannula and C. Ranganath Medial Temporal Lobe Activity Predicts Successful Relational Memory Binding J. Neurosci., January 2, 2008; 28(1): 116 - 124. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. D. Winters, S. J. Bartko, L. M. Saksida, and T. J. Bussey Scopolamine infused into perirhinal cortex improves object recognition memory by blocking the acquisition of interfering object information Learn. Mem., September 5, 2007; 14(9): 590 - 596. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. I. Rossato, L. R.M. Bevilaqua, J. C. Myskiw, J. H. Medina, I. Izquierdo, and M. Cammarota On the role of hippocampal protein synthesis in the consolidation and reconsolidation of object recognition memory Learn. Mem., January 1, 2007; 14(1-2): 36 - 46. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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