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Volume 16, Number 12,
Issue of June 15, 1996
pp. 4041-4045
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience
Systemic NMDA Receptor Antagonist CGP-40116 Does Not Impair
Memory Acquisition but Protects against NMDA Neurotoxicity in Rhesus
Monkeys
Sergei A. Gutnikov and
David Gaffan
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford
OX1 3UD, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT 1: EFFECT OF CGP-40116 ON ACQUISITION AND
RETRIEVAL OF VISUAL-REWARD ASSOCIATIONS IN THE OBJECT-IN-PLACE MEMORY
TASK
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
EXPERIMENT 2: NEUROPROTECTIVE EFFECT OF CGP-40116
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
GENERAL DISCUSSION
FOOTNOTES
REFERENCES
ABSTRACT
A widely accepted hypothesis is that long-term potentiation (LTP)
is a synaptic mechanism of memory. NMDA receptors are critically
involved in induction but not maintenance of LTP; therefore, their
blockade should impair memory acquisition but not retrieval. In
Experiment 1, we investigated the effect of a systemic NMDA receptor
antagonist, CGP-40116 [D-isomer of CGP-37849:
(E)-2-amino-4-methyl-5-phosphono-3-pentenoic acid (6 mg/kg,
i.m.) 60 min before the testing session] on memory acquisition and
retrieval by monkeys in the ``object-in-place'' visual memory task,
an analog of human episodic memory. Only a small increase in error rate
was produced (<3%), and this increase was observed in both retention
and acquisition tests. This deficit is substantially smaller than the
previously reported deficit after fornix transection in the same task,
and is not specific to memory acquisition. In Experiment 2, we
investigated the neuroprotective effect of CGP-40116. NMDA (68 nmol)
was injected into the right hippocampus, then CGP-40116 (6 mg/kg) was
given intramuscularly, and then NMDA was injected into the left
hippocampus. The area of cell loss in CA1 and CA3 fields was smaller in
both hemispheres compared with unprotected monkeys (without CGP-40116).
Thus, CGP-40116 provides both retrograde and anterograde protection
against NMDA neurotoxicity. These data (1) demonstrate that acquisition
of episodic memories remains almost intact when an NMDA receptor
antagonist is given in a dose sufficient to block NMDA receptors in the
hippocampus, and (2) indirectly oppose the hypothesis that NMDA
receptor-dependent LTP plays the key role in memory.
Key words:
CGP-37849;
episodic memory;
excitatory amino acids;
glutamate receptor pharmacology;
NMDA receptor pharmacology;
competitive NMDA receptor antagonists;
excitotoxicity;
neuroprotection;
ischemic brain damage;
LTP;
primates
INTRODUCTION
NMDA receptors are crucially involved in
the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in many brain areas
(Collingridge and Bliss, 1995 ). LTP has been proposed as a neural
mechanism of memory, and NMDA receptor antagonists might therefore be
expected to interfere with memory acquisition via blocking induction of
LTP. On the other hand, activation of NMDA receptors is involved in the
chain of pathophysiological reactions that leads to an irreversible
neuronal damage during brain ischemia (Peruche and Krieglstein, 1993 )
and, therefore, NMDA receptor antagonists have a potential clinical use
as neuroprotectors. As a pharmacological tool for the present
investigation, we chose the NMDA receptor antagonist CGP-40116. This
substance is chemically related to
D-2-amino-5-phosphono-pentanoic acid
(D-AP5) but, unlike D-AP5,
it crosses the blood-brain barrier and blocks NMDA receptors in the
brain after systemic administration (Fagg et al., 1990 ). We examined
the effect of CGP-40116 on memory acquisition (Experiment 1) and on
NMDA neurotoxicity (Experiment 2).
EXPERIMENT 1: EFFECT OF CGP-40116 ON ACQUISITION AND
RETRIEVAL OF VISUAL-REWARD ASSOCIATIONS IN THE OBJECT-IN-PLACE MEMORY
TASK
LTP is an artificially induced long-lasting enhancement of
synaptic transmission first reported in the hippocampus of the rabbit
(Lomo, 1966 ; Bliss and Lomo, 1973 ). Associative LTP, which occurs when
concurrent stimulation of two inputs to the same neuron results in
enhancement of the weak input, is a proposed neural mechanism of
associative memory (Brown et al., 1990 ). The acquisition of some forms
of LTP depends on activation of the NMDA subtype of glutamate
receptors. NMDA receptor antagonists block the induction of LTP
(Collingridge et al., 1983 ; Harris et al., 1984 ; Errington et al.,
1987 ) but not the maintenance of previously acquired LTP (Brown et al.,
1989 ). Administration of NMDA receptor antagonists can produce severe
deficits in performance of certain learning tasks (Morris et al., 1986 ;
Tonkiss et al., 1988 ; Willner et al., 1992 ). Furthermore, a resemblance
between the effects of AP5 and the performance deficit observed in
animals with surgical lesions of the hippocampus or fornix was
emphasized in rodent studies (Morris et al., 1990 ; Lyford et al.,
1993 ). This body of evidence taken together suggests the hypothesis
that a memory system in the hippocampus uses NMDA-dependent LTP as its
mechanism for the acquisition of new memories.
If (1) induction of NMDA receptor-dependent LTP is an essential part of
the learning process and (2) NMDA receptor antagonists block induction
but not retention of LTP, then NMDA receptor antagonists should
selectively block acquisition of new memories but not retention of
memories that had been acquired before administration of the drug.
Although neither blockade of LTP with NMDA receptor antagonists nor
demonstration of LTP itself has ever been performed in primates, it is
plausible to assume a similarity of mechanisms of memory between
rodents and primates. In other words, in accordance with the LTP-memory
hypothesis it is plausible to assume that blockade of the NMDA
receptors should impair acquisition of hippocampus-dependent memories
in primates. In the present experiment, we tested this prediction in
monkeys by using the object-in-place memory task (Gaffan, 1994 ). In
this task, it is possible to measure separately the retention of
previously learned material and the acquisition of new memories within
a single testing session. Furthermore, this task has been demonstrated
to be highly sensitive to fornix transection (Gaffan, 1994 ). According
to the hypothesis that NMDA receptor-dependent LTP is necessary for
memory acquisition in the hippocampal formation, the predicted effect
of the NMDA receptor antagonist in this task would be an impairment in
the acquisition of new memories, but no impairment in retrieval of the
previously learned material.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
The subjects were six male rhesus monkeys (Macaca
mulatta). Their weights were 4.6, 4.7, 6.9, 7.7, 7.8, and 9.0 kg
at the beginning of the drug testing phase. All of the monkeys had
previous extensive experience with the behavioral task.
Apparatus
The monkey was brought to the testing room in a wheeled
transport cage, which was then fixed to the front of the apparatus
facing a touch-sensitive computer monitor screen on which visual scenes
(described below) were presented. The screen was 380 mm wide and 280 mm
high and provided color VGA resolution (640 × 480 pixels). The monkey
could reach out through the bars at the front of the transport cage to
touch the screen, which was ~150 mm from the front of the transport
cage. Small food rewards (pellets, 190 mg) were delivered into a hopper
placed centrally underneath the monitor screen. A single large food
reward was delivered at the end of each training session by opening a
box that was set to the left side of the centrally placed hopper. The
box contained proprietary monkey food, peanuts, raisins, fruit, and
seeds. The amount of this large reward was adjusted for individual
animals to avoid obesity. The small and large rewards dispensed in the
testing apparatus provided the entire daily diet of the monkeys.
Opening of the box with the large food reward, like all other aspects
of the stimulus display and the experimental contingencies during any
session of training, was under computer control. A closed-circuit
television system allowed the experimenter in another room to watch the
monkey.
Stimulus material
Each scene occupied an entire screen. The
background of each scene was generated by drawing a random
number (between 2 and 7) of randomly located ellipses and ellipse
segments of random color, size, and orientation on a randomly colored
initial background and then drawing a single large (~180 mm high)
randomly selected typographic character in a random color somewhere in
the scene. The objects in the scene were two smaller (~50
mm high) randomly selected typographic characters that were different
from each other; they were drawn in random colors and at random
locations with the constraint of a minimal spatial separation between
them. All of the random colors were assigned with the constraint that
the objects should be visible at any location in the scene (that is,
there was a minimum separation in color space between the colors of the
foreground objects and the color of any element of the background).
Examples of these visual scenes were reproduced in color in Gaffan
(1994) .
Reinforcement contingencies
One of the objects in each scene was designated as ``correct''
(a response to it was rewarded with a 190 mg food pellet) and the other
as ``wrong'' (a response to this object was followed by a 20 sec
timeout); there was also visual feedback: flashing of the correct
object for 3 sec after a correct response and immediate blanking of the
screen after a wrong response. The location and the designations of the
objects remained constant every time the scene was presented. The
intertrial interval was 10 sec. Touching the screen during intertrial
interval reset the interval. Touching any part of a displayed scene
that was not one of the foreground objects in that scene resulted in
scene blanking, an intertrial interval, and the presentation again of
the same scene for the same trial. These ``inaccurate'' touches were
recorded separately from errors (that is, choices of the negative
object) and were made on <1% of trials by all animals.
There was one testing session every day, 7 d/week. In each session, 20 new scenes were presented. Each session consisted of two parts: (1)
retention test (1 trial per scene) of the 20 scenes learned on the
previous day, and (2) learning of new scenes (8 trials per scene
organized as 8 repetitions of the entire sequence of 20 scenes). The
level of retention of previously learned material was measured by
counting the number of errors in the retention test; the rate of new
learning was measured by counting the total number of errors across
repetitions 2-8 (because the responses at the first presentation of
the scenes are random) and by the retention test of these scenes on the
day after the injection day.
Correction trials were given only if the response in the first
acquisition trial was wrong: after a 15 sec delay during which the
screen remained blank, the same background with only the correct object
was presented. No correction trials were given in the subsequent
acquisition except the very last trial in the session because the large
reward at the end of the session (see Apparatus) could be given only
after a correct response. The animals were trained until their
performance stabilized, and then the drug testing commenced.
Drugs
CGP-40116 (D-isomer of CGP-37849:
(E)-2-amino-4-methyl-5-phosphono-3-pentenoic acid) was
obtained from Ciba-Geigy (Basel, Switzerland). The drug powder was
dissolved in physiological saline immediately before injection. The
solution was injected into a femoral muscle in the volume of 0.1 ml/kg
15 min (doses 0.03-3.0 mg/kg) and 60 min (doses 3.0-6.0 mg/kg) before
testing session commenced. The dose of the drug was increased in steps:
0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, and 6.0 mg/kg. If an animal stopped
responding after a particular dose, the dose for the next drug
injection was reduced. The main data were obtained from the block of
tests with 6.0 mg/kg.
Days when injections were given were alternated with no-injection days.
On the injection days, CGP-40116 (drug condition) or saline (control
condition) was administered; the order of drug and control conditions
was pseudorandom (within-subject experimental design).
RESULTS
One of six monkeys stopped working in the behavioral task after
administration of CGP-40116 in the dose of 6 mg/kg, and another monkey
did not complete the session even with the dose as low as 3 mg/kg;
those two animals were excluded from the further testing. The remaining
four monkeys were tested with 6 mg/kg twice (2 subjects) or 5 times (2 subjects). The data from individual subjects were collapsed across
sessions for further analysis.
In the control condition (saline), on the injection day the retention
of scenes that had been learned on the previous day was good: only 12%
of errors on average (the open bar in Fig.
1, left). The learning curve for the new set
of 20 scenes began at the chance level of 50% errors (not shown on the
graph) and declined to practically perfect accuracy on the 8th
repetition of the set (open symbols in Fig. 1,
left). On the no-injection days that followed the saline
injections, the pattern of results was exactly same (open
symbols in Fig. 1, middle).
Fig. 1.
Performance of the object-in-place memory
task with injection of CGP-40116 (6.0 mg/kg, i.m.; closed
circles and bars) and saline (open
circles and bars). Left, Retention on
the injection day of the 20 scenes learned on the previous day and
acquisition of a new set of 20 scenes, trials 2-8 (performance was at
the chance level of 50% errors in trial 1, when the scenes were
presented for the first time, and is not shown on the graph).
Middle, Performance on the next day, with no injection.
R shows retention of the scenes that were learned under the
drug (or saline) condition on the injection day, and trials 2-8 show
acquisition of the next 20 scenes. The data are collapsed across
individual monkeys and 2-5 repetitions of the drug and saline
injections per monkey. Right, Effect of fornix transection
on the acquisition of 20 scenes in the object-in-place task shown on
the same scale (from Gaffan, 1994 ).
[View Larger Version of this Image (17K GIF file)]
When CGP-40116 was injected, on the injection day the number of errors
was higher, both in the retention test and in the new acquisition
trials (closed bars and symbols in Fig. 1,
left). However, the increase in errors was only 2.7%. On
the next day, i.e., when the information that had been learned on the
drug day had to be retrieved, the number of errors in the retention
test (R) was higher than under the control condition by 7%
(closed bar in Fig. 1, middle). ANOVA
revealed significant difference between the drug and control conditions
(F(1,3) = 53.27, p < 0.01),
between the injection day retention, new learning, and the next day
retention phases (F(2,6) = 13.69, p < 0.01), but only nonsignificant drug × phase
interaction (F(2,6) = 5.05; 0.05 < p < 0.1). Acquisition of new scenes on the day after injections
(Fig. 1, middle, trials 2-8) was the same after injection
of CGP-40116 and after saline injection. This result confirms that 24 hr is enough time for the direct effect of drug injection to
dissipate.
DISCUSSION
When the performance deficit induced by injections of CGP-40116 in
the present experiment is compared with the earlier reported deficit in
the same task after fornix transection (Gaffan, 1994 ), it becomes clear
that the effect of the NMDA receptor antagonist is just a small
fraction of the effect of a surgical fornix transection (compare with
the right panel in Fig. 1). Even that small
drug-induced impairment did not show clear specificity for acquisition
of new memories, but produced also an effect on retrieval of old
memories. The results of Experiment 1 suggest that blockade of NMDA
receptors does not induce selective impairment of memory
acquisition.
However, another possibility is that CGP-40116 as administered in the
present experiment (injection of 6 mg/kg, i.m.) does not block NMDA
receptors in the monkey's hippocampus. We had no access to any
published or unpublished data on the effect of CGP-40116 in rhesus
monkey. In the only available study of this drug in primates, CGP-37849
(a racemic mixture of CGP-40116 with its inactive enantiomer) was
administered to baboons in a range of doses up to 40 mg/kg (p.o.). That
dose (equivalent of 20 mg/kg CGP-40116) protected baboons against
photically induced mioclonus, whereas lower doses (equivalent to 10 and
5 mg/kg) were ineffective (Chapman et al., 1991 ). The different route
of administration in that study makes difficult to compare the
effective dose with the dose we empirically chose for our work.
However, Shors and Servatius (1995) reported that a dose of as low as 5 mg/kg (i.p.) CGP-37849 (equivalent to 2.5 mg/kg CGP-40116) was
effective to block stress-induced facilitation of the conditioned
eye-blink response in rats, whereas Massieu et al. (1993) demonstrated
in the rat that systemic parenteral administration of CGP-40116
(ED50 7.5 mg/kg, i.p.) protected neurons against
local administration of quinolinic acid, a neurotoxin acting primarily
via NMDA receptors, even when CGP-40116 had been administered up to 6 hr after quinolinic acid. In the next experiment, we tested whether
CGP-40116 in the dose we used in our behavioral experiment could cause
neuroprotection against NMDA neurotoxicity in the rhesus monkey.
EXPERIMENT 2: NEUROPROTECTIVE EFFECT OF CGP-40116
The aim of the present experiment was threefold: (1) to replicate
the NMDA-induced neurotoxic lesion of hippocampal pyramidal cells in
the rhesus monkey under barbiturate anesthesia; (2) to find out whether
systemic administration of CGP-40116 protects against NMDA
neurotoxicity; and (3) if such protection by CGP-40116 is observed, to
rule out the argument that the lack of specific effect on memory
acquisition observed in the Experiment 1 was simply attributable to the
lack of any central action of the drug after its systemic
administration.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
Five rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were used in
this experiment. They included four males with weights 3.5, 6.9, 8.7, and 14.8 kg, and one female with weight 12.5 kg. None of these monkeys
had taken part in Experiment 1. All five received injections of NMDA
bilaterally in the hippocampus. Three of the animals (the
``protected'' animals) received in addition an injection of
CGP-40116, whereas the other two (the ``unprotected'' animals)
received no such injection, as described below.
Surgery
After ketamine premedication (20 mg/kg, i.m., ketamine
hydrochloride; Vetalar, Park Davies Veterinary, Pontypool, Gwent, UK),
barbiturate anesthesia was maintained by intravenous injections of 5%
solution of thiopentone sodium (Intraval Sodium, Rhône
Mérieux Ltd, Harlow, Essex, UK), 0.5 ml (25 mg) every 15-20 min.
Additional medication included, in the beginning of the operation:
atropine (Martindale Pharmaceuticals, Romford, Essex, UK) 0.516 mg
(i.m.), bicillin (Brocades Great Britain Ltd., West Byfleet, Surrey,
UK) 300,000 U (i.m.), dexamethasone sodium phosphate (Decadron, Merck,
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, UK) 3.3 mg (i.m.); at the end of the
operation: buprenorphine hydrochloride (Temgesic, Reckitt and Colman
Products Ltd, Hull, UK) 0.1 mg (i.m.).
After coronal skin incision, a 4 × 2.5 cm D-shaped bone flap was
removed over the right temporal lobe. Cortex in the upper bank of the
superior temporal sulcus was removed by aspiration, and the lateral
ventricle was opened to expose the superior surface of the hippocampus.
The stereotaxic coordinates of the hippocampus were recorded under
visual guidance. Three injections of NMDA (Sigma-Aldrich Company Ltd,
Poole, Dorset, UK), in a concentration of 10 mg/ml phosphate buffer, pH
7.3, were made at ~10.7 mm anterior to the ear-bar zero, 2 mm deep
into the hippocampus, and 17, 15.5, and 14 mm lateral from the midline.
The total volume injected at each site was 1.0 µl (total dose of NMDA
68 nmol); 0.2 µl was injected every 30 sec, and when the total of 1.0 µl had been injected the needle was left in place for 2 min. The
three injections took 30 min altogether; the period of time between
ketamine injection and first NMDA injection was between 220 and 310 min. Then the right bone flap was temporarily replaced and an identical
bone flap was taken over the left hemisphere. In the three
``protected'' animals, a single dose of 6 mg/kg CGP-40116 was
injected into a femoral muscle 20, 40, and 112 min after the last NMDA
injection on the right side. The ``unprotected'' animals received no
injection of CGP-40116. The surface of the left hippocampus was then
exposed, and a set of three NMDA injections was repeated on the left
side; that set commenced 75, 130, and 49 min after the CGP-40116
injection in the three protected animals, respectively. When injections
were completed, the dura was sutured, the bone flaps were replaced and
sutured to the skull, the temporal muscles, galea, and skin were
sutured, and the animal was allowed to recover.
Seven days later, the animal was deeply anesthetized and perfused with
formol-saline, the brain was removed, fixed, sectioned at 50 µm
intervals, and stained with cresyl violet. The assessment of neurotoxic
lesion was made by reconstruction of the area (in
mm2) of clearly visible pyramidal cell loss. In
each coronal section in which cell loss was visible, the length of the
cell loss was measured in the pyramidal cell layer, and the integration
of these lengths across all the sections gave the estimate of area of
loss in the pyramidal cell layer.
RESULTS
Injection of NMDA produced cell loss in the pyramidal cell
layer. The area of cell loss was smaller in the animals injected with
CGP-40116 than in the control animals (see Fig. 2). The
difference between the control hemispheres (animals without injection
of CGP-40116) and the protected hemispheres was statistically
significant for both anterograde and retrograde protection (one-tailed
Wilcoxon's rank-sum test, Ws = 6, p = 0.05). It also appeared that the area of cell loss was
smaller when the tip of the needle was in the region CA3 than in the
region CA1. Hemispheres in which the needle tip was in CA3 are marked
in Figure 2 with an asterisk.
Fig. 2.
The area of cell loss in the CA1 and CA3 areas of
the hippocampus after administration of 68 nmol of NMDA alone
(left four bars: 2 subjects, 4 hemispheres), NMDA
after pretreatment with 6 mg/kg (i.m.) CGP-40116 (middle three
bars: 3 subjects, 1 hemisphere from each subject), and NMDA
followed by treatment with CGP-40116 (right three
bars: the same 3 subjects, the other hemisphere from each
subject). In the hemispheres marked with an asterisk, the
needle tip was in the CA3 field, and in the other hemispheres it was
near the CA1 field of the hippocampus.
[View Larger Version of this Image (35K GIF file)]
DISCUSSION
Systemic administration of CGP-40116 in the same dose as in
Experiment 1 conferred substantial protection against the neurotoxic
effects of NMDA. We observed both anterograde protection (in the
hemispheres in which NMDA was injected after systemic administration of
CGP-40116) and retrograde protection (in the hemispheres in which NMDA
was injected before CGP-40116), as shown in Figure 2.
In both the protected and the unprotected animals, the area of cell
loss was smaller, relative to other hemispheres in the same group of
animals, when the tip of the needle was in the region CA3 (marked on
Fig. 2 with an asterisk) rather than in the region CA1.
There is a greater density of the NMDA receptors in the CA1 region than
in the CA3 region in the primate brain (Perry et al., 1993 ), and this
may account for the fact that NMDA in a given concentration killed more
cells in CA1 than in CA3. Whatever the reason is for the difference in
the size of neurotoxic lesion between CA1 and CA3 regions, the
difference between protected and nonprotected hemispheres becomes even
more salient when the location of the needle is taken into account.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
In Experiment 1, systemic administration of CGP-40116 in monkeys
resulted in only a very small impairment of performance of the
object-in-place memory task, which had been shown to be sensitive to
fornix transection. This small impairment was not specific to the
acquisition of new memories, because there was no significant
difference between effects on acquisition and on retrieval. In
Experiment 2, the same dose of CGP-40116 as that used in Experiment 1 led to clear anterograde and retrograde protection against NMDA
neurotoxicity in the hippocampus.
In the task used in Experiment 1, the monkeys learned a new set of
scenes within each session of training, and retention of those scenes
was then tested in one trial per scene in the next day's session. This
one-trial test is an uncontaminated measure of retention, because no
effect of further learning is possible in a single trial. Thus, we
could measure separately two specific effects of a single drug
injection: its specific effect on retrieval of memories, as revealed in
the retention test performed under the drug, and its specific effect on
acquisition of new memories, as revealed by the retention test next day
of the scenes that were learned under the drug. Furthermore, because
the tests of acquisition and of retrieval were operationally identical
(both were one-trial retention tests), they were of equal sensitivity.
This allowed us to test the specific hypothesis, derived from the work
on LTP discussed in the introductory remarks, that an NMDA receptor
antagonist should impair acquisition but not retrieval of memories. The
results failed to support this hypothesis. Although acquisition was
impaired by the drug, as revealed by the increase in errors in the
retention test on the day after drug injection, the effect on
acquisition was mild and was not significantly greater than the effect
on retrieval as measured by the increase in errors in the retention
test on the drug day.
The effects of NMDA receptor antagonists on memory have been studied in
several experiments with rodents. In some experiments, such drugs have
produced behavioral effects resembling the effects of hippocampal
lesions (Morris et al., 1986 ; Lyford et al., 1993 ), but it is generally
accepted that the interpretation of such effects depends on a
distinction between drug effects on memory and drug effects on
performance, and that this distinction is difficult to make in many of
the existing experiments (Gallagher, 1990 ; Keith and Rudy, 1990 ;
Morris, 1990; Deacon and Rawlins, 1995 ). The use in the present study
of a pure measure of retrieval of memory, as opposed to acquisition of
memory, allows effects on performance to be distinguished clearly from
effects on memory acquisition.
Several experiments with rodents have cast doubt on the idea that NMDA
receptor-dependent LTP is the basis of associative learning (Keith and
Rudy, 1990 ; Bolhuis and Reid, 1992 ; Deacon and Rawlins, 1995 ; Gutnikov
and Rawlins, 1996 ); and the evidence is growing that acquisition of new
memories even in classical hippocampus-dependent tasks, such as spatial
learning in a watermaze, is not impaired by NMDA receptor antagonists,
providing that the animals had had extensive drug-free training
(Bannerman et al., 1995 ; Saucier and Cain, 1995 ). The present study
extends the latter evidence to the primate brain.
A second important outcome from of the present study, which may have
implications not only for fundamental neuroscience but also for
clinical research, is an empirical demonstration of substantial
neuroprotective effect of a systemic NMDA receptor antagonist in the
monkey.
FOOTNOTES
Received Nov. 28, 1995; revised March 5, 1996; accepted March 21, 1996.
This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (UK). We thank
Dr. Cesare Mondadori for advice and encouragement and for supplying us
with CGP-40116.
Correspondence should be addressed to Sergei A. Gutnikov,
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, South Parks
Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
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