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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 1, 1998, 18(7):2740-2747
Facilitative Effects of the Ampakine CX516 on Short-Term
Memory in Rats: Enhancement of Delayed-Nonmatch-to-Sample
Performance
Robert E.
Hampson1,
Gary
Rogers2,
Gary
Lynch3, and
Sam A.
Deadwyler1
1 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake
Forest University School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina
27157, 2 Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Irvine, California 92718, and 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of California,
Irvine, California 92715
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ABSTRACT |
Ampakines are a family of drugs that selectively increase AMPA
receptor-gated currents and improve performance on several behavioral
tasks. This report describes evidence that ampakines cause a
cumulative enhancement of performance in a spatial short-term memory
task (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ). Two groups of rats were trained on a
spatial variant of the delayed-nonmatch-to-sample (DNMS) paradigm. One
group (n = 12) received the ampakine CX516 (Cortex
Pharmaceuticals) alternated with vehicle for 17 consecutive days and
then only vehicle for an additional 7 d. The second group (n = 6) received only vehicle injections over the
same number of days. CX516 improved performance within sessions,
particularly on trials with delays of 6-35 sec. In 9 of 12 rats, the
positive effect of the drug was also present on nondrug days between
CX516 administration and after cessation of CX516 injections. The
animals that received only vehicle injections showed no improvement in DNMS performance over the entire 32 d of testing. Three of the 12 animals given CX516 did not exhibit "carryover" effects of the drug
to the intervening (vehicle only) test sessions, but nonetheless
exhibited superior performance during the first half of the session on
days in which the ampakine was administered. Evaluation of errors
suggests that the ampakine eliminated the necessity for a shift
in response strategy that produced proactive interference on the
following trial. Hippocampal involvement in these ampakine effects is
discussed as a prelude to the second article in the series (Hampson et
al., 1998 ).
Key words:
ampakine; hippocampus; learning; memory; behavior; delay-dependent memory; proactive interference
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INTRODUCTION |
Drugs that positively modulate
glutamatergic AMPA receptor-gated currents increase the size of fast,
excitatory synaptic responses (Ito et al., 1990 ; Issacson and Nicoll,
1991 ; Vyklicky et al., 1991 ) and reduce the amount of afferent activity
needed to induce long-term potentiation (Staubli et al., 1994a ). Either
effect could promote the encoding of memory by facilitating the
processing of cues and the formation of responses in circumstances
involving familiar environments and practiced behaviors. Studies using
hippocampal slices indicate that positive modulators of AMPA receptors
have a much greater enhancing effect on polysynaptic than on
monosynaptic responses (Arai et al., 1995 ). Accordingly, the modulators
are likely to have a pronounced influence on those behaviors subserved by exceedingly complex networks running through hippocampus and cortex.
Several studies using ampakines have tested, with favorable
results, the prediction that positive AMPA receptor modulators enhance
memory (Staubli et al., 1994b ). Ampakines are a group of small
benzamide compounds that slow the deactivation rate of AMPA receptors
and increase the size and duration of excitatory responses in
hippocampal slices (Arai and Lynch, 1992 ). The drugs readily cross the
blood-brain barrier with expected results on synaptic potentials and
LTP induction in freely moving rats. Ampakines improve retention scores
in radial mazes (Staubli et al., 1994b ), facilitate the acquisition of
a conditioned response (Shors et al., 1994 ), and reduce the number of
trials needed to form stable olfactory memory (Larson et al., 1995 ), at
dosages predicted to be effective from in vitro
physiological experiments. Evidence has also shown that ampakines have
a positive effect on the delayed recall of nonsense syllables as well
as on several commonplace forms of memory in humans (Lynch et al.,
1996 ).
The facilitatory effect of AMPA receptor modulators on the
induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) is presumably attributable to
a greater net depolarizing response to high-frequency stimulation (via
enhanced AMPA receptor currents) and thus a greater likelihood of
producing an NMDA receptor-mediated current of magnitude sufficient to
trigger the formation of LTP. Given the evidence linking LTP to several
varieties of memory (Morris et al., 1986 ; Larson and Lynch, 1988 ;
Staubli et al., 1994b ), it can be predicted that positive modulators of
AMPA receptors should enhance, via effects on LTP, the encoding of new
information across a number of paradigms.
The initial objective of the present study was to determine whether
ampakines produce positive effects on hippocampal-dependent memory.
Rats were tested on a spatial, delayed-nonmatch-to-sample (DNMS) task,
in which performance typically drops to random levels with 1 min of
delay between the Sample and Recognition phases on the task. In this
particular paradigm, the sources of DNMS errors have been analyzed in
detail (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ; Hampson and Deadwyler, 1996a ,b ) and
thus could be used to significantly extend the understanding of aspects
of stimulus encoding and information retrieval that are influenced by
ampakines. A second goal was to test for cumulative effects of
ampakines to determine whether repeated exposure to AMPA receptor-gated
modulation of synaptic currents promoted persistent changes in
behavior. Because it allows for detailed and quantitative analyses of
complex behavior over time, the DNMS paradigm was well suited for
studying such changes.
A final reason for testing whether ampakines modify DNMS performance
was that a positive result would open the way for studies of how the
drugs influence neuronal activity in circuits essential to memory
processes. Classic spatial memory delay-type tasks in rodents,
including this one, are disrupted by removal of hippocampus (Dunnett,
1989 ; Hampson et al., 1995 ). Moreover, recent studies have indicated
that patterns of cell firing in hippocampus at various phases of the
task are predictive of performance within a trial (Deadwyler et al.,
1996 ).
The results reported here indicate that the ampakine CX516, a drug that
facilitates memory in aged rats and humans (Granger et al., 1996 ; Lynch
et al., 1996 ), is a potent enhancer of short-term memory as measured in
this form of DNMS task. CX516-treated animals showed not only marked
enhancement of DNMS performance between sessions, but also exhibited a
residual improvement on days after injection sessions. This article
will focus on the behavioral changes produced by CX516 with respect to
alterations in short-term spatial memory and strategies that control
that performance and will provide a foundation for subsequent
presentation of electrophysiological correlates of these effects in the
companion article (Hampson et al., 1998 ) that follows.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Subjects. Eighteen male Long-Evans rats ranging in
age from 200 to 250 d were used as subjects. Several pilot studies
with different doses and drugs were used before we decided on the
parameters for dosage, injection time, and vehicle reported here and in
the companion article. The study itself took >2 years and was run as
three complete replications with approximately one third of the animals
(4-7 per group) in each replication. All animals were trained to the
same behavioral criteria before surgery was performed and retrained to
that criteria after surgery and before testing was begun.
Surgery. As animals reached behavioral performance criterion
on the DNMS task, they were surgically implanted with a multi-neuron recording device that consisted of a 16-electrode array aimed at the
CA1 and CA3 subfields of the hippocampus (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ) (also
see companion article, Hampson et al., 1998 ). Surgery was performed
under ketamine (100 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) anesthesia. After
surgery, the cranium was sealed with bone wax and dental cement, and
the animal was allowed to recover its preoperative weight (usually 1 week). The scalp wound was treated periodically with Neosporin
antibiotic, and animals were given an injection of Crysticillin
(penicillin G, 300,000 U) to prevent infection. All animal care and
experimental procedures conformed to National Institutes of Health and
Society for Neuroscience guidelines for care and use of experimental
animals.
Apparatus. The apparatus was similar to that used in other
studies from this laboratory (Hampson et al., 1993 ; Deadwyler et al.,
1996 ). Briefly, studies were conducted in 43 × 43 × 53 cm Plexiglas behavioral testing chambers (Eichenbaum et al., 1987 ) with
manipulanda and other features similar to that initially described and
modified by Hampson et al. (1993) . The entire apparatus was housed
inside a commercial sound-attenuated cubicle (Industrial Acoustics,
Bronx, NY). On one wall of the chamber, two retractable levers
(Coulborn Instruments, Lehigh Valley, PA) were positioned 3.5 cm above
the floor and separated by 14.0 cm, center to center. A water dispenser
trough was positioned midway between the levers. The nosepoke device,
consisting of an infrared photodetector and light-emitting diode
spanning a 2.5 cm × 1 cm × 1 cm opening in an aluminum
housing, was mounted 4.0 cm above the chamber floor, centered on the
wall opposite the levers. The cue light (6 V, 10 W) was positioned
immediately above the nosepoke device, and a speaker mounted overhead
provided a constant 85 dB "white noise" background. Two 12 V, 25 W
incandescent lamps (house lights) were mounted on the top of the
chamber. Video monitoring of the animal at all times was provided by a
Sanyo CCD black and white video camera mounted above the chamber. The
apparatus was controlled by a minicomputer that collected all
behavioral data and stored it on magnetic disks.
Behavioral training procedure. Animals were water-deprived
but allowed free access to food for maintenance at 85-90% of their weight throughout the duration of DNMS training and recording. Periodically (every 30-60 d) animals were given free access to water
and food, and a new weight was calculated to allow for normal body
growth. Animals received water daily after the behavioral session. The
water was typically consumed within 1 hr; therefore, before each
successive behavioral session, all animals were typically water-deprived for 20-22 hr. The DNMS task was identical to that described by Deadwyler et al. (1996) .
Pretraining was as described in Hampson et al. (1993) . The task
consisted of three main phases: Sample, Delay,
and Recognition. At the initiation of a trial (Sample
phase), either the left or right lever was extended (Sample
presentation or SP), and the animal responded. This lever press
constituted the Sample response or SR. The lever was retracted
immediately, and the Delay phase was initiated, the duration of which
varied randomly on any given trial from 1 to 40 sec. The animal was
required to nosepoke (NP) in the photocell device on the opposite wall
at least once during the Delay interval signaled by the presence of the
illuminated cue light. The last nosepoke (LNP) that occurred after the
delay interval had timed out on a given trial turned off the cue light and extended both levers into the chamber, designating the onset of the
Nonmatch or Recognition phase of the task. At this time the animal was
required to press the lever opposite to the SR [i.e., a Nonmatch
response (NR)] for a reward, which was signaled immediately by a
distinct "click" of the water delivery solenoid and appearance of
water in the trough next to the lever. The levers then were retracted
for the 10 sec intertrial interval (ITI). On correct trials, water was
consumed (Reinforcement phase) during this 10 sec period. On incorrect
(error) trials, an inappropriate (i.e., "match") lever press was
followed by an immediate 5 sec time-out period in which the levers
retracted, and the house lights were turned off, leaving the chamber
completely dark. After this time-out period, the lights were turned
back on for an additional 5 sec. A new trial was initiated by the
extension of one of the levers selected at random, a total of 10 sec
(ITI) after the Recognition phase response (correct or error).
The average time required to train a naive animal to criterion in the
DNMS task with 1-40 sec delays was ~1 month. Training involved
several phases in which different procedures were used to develop
selective responding on each lever, stimulus control over nosepoke
responding during the delay, and linkage of responding in the Sample
and Recognition phases of the task. Once animals were able to respond
to all facets of a single DNMS trial appropriately, with no delay, they
were moved out rapidly with respect to exposure to trials with
increasing durations of the delay, first at delays of 1-15 sec and
then 1-30 sec or 1-40 sec delay trials. A final criterion of >85%
correct responding on trials with delays of 1-5 sec during sessions
with 1-30 or 1-40 sec delay trials was used for all animals (Hampson
et al., 1993 ; Deadwyler et al., 1996 ).
Drug preparation and administration. CX516 was prepared as a
35 mg/ml stock in a cyclodextrin vehicle. The vehicle solution was
mixed as 25% wt/vol solution by adding 2.5 gm
2-hydroxypropyl- -cyclodextrin (Research Biochemicals, Natick, MA) to
5.0 ml sterile saline (0.9%) and diluted to 10.0 ml total volume with
sterile deionized water. Drug solutions were prepared by adding 35 mg
of CX516 (Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Irvine, CA) powder to 1.0 ml of
cyclodextrin vehicle. Both drug and vehicle solutions were sonicated at
high power for 15 sec to ensure thorough dissolution and mixing of the
vehicle and drug. On drug administration days, animals were injected
intraperitoneally with the CX516/cyclodextrin solution (1 ml/kg of the
35 mg/ml solution to provide 35 mg/kg) ~5 min before the start of the
behavioral session. On vehicle-only days, the vehicle solution was
administered at 1 ml/kg 5 min before the start of the session. All
CX516 solutions were mixed fresh each day. Vehicle solutions were mixed
and maintained over 5 d, stored at 4°C, and warmed to room
temperature and sonicated to remix the cyclodextrin before daily
use.
Behavioral analyses. Analysis of behavioral data consisted
of several different measures designed to elucidate different DNMS performance factors. The two primary measures used to test performance differences were mean percent correct trials during the session and
mean percent correct trials at each delay interval assessed in 5.0 sec
blocks. Additional measures included time of execution of the trial and
influence of previous trial delay (Hampson and Deadwyler, 1996b ;
Deadwyler and Hampson, 1997 ). ANOVA was used for most comparisons, with
adjusted pairwise contrasts used for individual comparisons and simple
effects. Trial-to-trial influences were examined by various methods of
sorting the data as a function of performance on the previous trial or
in terms of delay intervals on any given trial.
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RESULTS |
Baseline DNMS performance before administration of CX516
All animals (n = 18) were trained to criterion
DNMS performance at delays of either 1-30 (n = 7) or
1-40 sec (n = 11). As noted above, the study was
conducted on three separate groups of animals tested at three different
intervals over a 2 year period. In each case the exact same training
and testing protocols were used (with the exception of maximum length
of trial delay). All animals were injected with vehicle 5 min before
the start of the session and trained at criterion for 8-12 d before
drug treatment. Performance during this period was stable at a mean of
72.7 ± 2.7% (mean ± SEM) for the control group and
72.9 ± 2.6% for the CX516 group across all delays. No
differences with respect to either replication (subgroups tested at
different times) or vehicle were detected. Performance at each delay
was grouped into 5 sec intervals from 1 to 40 sec and assessed as a
function of the duration of the delay period. Mean performance across
the various delay intervals is shown in Figure
1 for the last 8 d of criterion
performance for each group. Because interanimal differences could have
been obscured by pooling trials across animals, the inset to Figure 1
shows the overall mean and SEMs calculated differently, across the
average performance of each animal at each delay. There were no
significant differences in DNMS performance as a function of delay
(F(17,742) = 0.32; NS) between the two groups by
either measure during this pretreatment period. However, there was a marked decrease from 90 to 58% correct responses as a function of
(1-40 sec) delay interval (F(7,742) = 6.17;
p < 0.001) assessed across both groups. Chance
(random) performance was 50% correct responses, and at delays of >35
sec (Fig. 1) performance was near random levels, demonstrating the
critical influence of length of Delay (Hampson and Deadwyler,
1996b ).

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Figure 1.
Behavioral performance in the DNMS task for CX516
(n = 9) and Control (n = 6)
groups on days 1-8, before drug administration. Each group was
injected with cyclodextrin vehicle for 8 d before the 17 d
drug treatment. Mean (and SEM) percent correct performance was
calculated over all trials and animals within 5 sec delay increments,
and plotted for both the CX516 and Control groups. The near-linear
slope indicates the dependence of DNMS performance on the length of the
delay interval in both groups. The inset shows the same
DNMS performance data in which means for each were calculated and then
averaged across animals, reflecting the absence of interanimal
differences.
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Effects of CX516 on DNMS performance
CX516 was administered over a 17 d treatment regimen,
alternating with days in which only vehicle and no drug was given.
Control group animals received injections of vehicle every day and were tested over the same time course. Because three different "squads" of animals were run repeatedly in this protocol at different times, control animals (vehicle only) were always "paired" with animals given drug in each replication of the experiment. Each CX516-treated animal had the same number of Pre-CX516 vehicle (days 1-8), CX516 (days 9-24), and Post-CX516 vehicle (days 25-32) sessions. Animals in
the Control group provided an assessment of changes in baseline DNMS
performance over the 32 d testing period as well as a comparison with the CX516 group. There were no significant differences in performance between the three sets of independently tested animals (Fig. 1, inset); therefore the data were pooled into a
single Control group (n = 6) and a single
CX516-treated group (n = 12).
Facilitation of DNMS performance by CX516 was manifested as a
significant increase in the mean number of correct responses on trials
when calculated across all delay intervals (1-40 sec) in comparison
with both the Control group over the same testing period
(F(7,742) = 2.71; p < 0.01) and
Pre-CX516 performance (F(7,742) = 3.46;
p < 0.01). Figure 2
shows the effects of CX516 on drug days in comparison with the Control
group averaged over the 17 d alternating drug treatment period.
The open symbols denote performance on days in which CX516 was
administered; filled circles indicate performance of the same group on
alternate vehicle-only days. Asterisks indicate delays that were
significantly increased over Control animals by linear contrasts within
the ANOVA (**, F(1,742) >11.03,
p < 0.001). Performance was significantly
(p < 0.001) enhanced by CX516 versus Control
animals during this period except for the shortest (1-5 sec) and
longest (36-40 sec) delays.

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Figure 2.
Mean percent correct performance as a function of
delay for CX516 and Control groups averaged over days 9-25. Curves
were calculated for the nine sessions during which drug (35 mg/kg) was
administered (open circles) to the CX516 group,
and separately for the 8 alternate vehicle days for the same group
(filled circles). Curve with
filled squares shows performance over the same 17 d period for the six animals in the Control group that received only
vehicle injections. Trials were sorted by delay as in Figure 1 and
plotted as mean (±SEM) performance across all trials and animals.
Asterisks indicate significantly
(**p < 0.001) different performance from Control
group.
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Time course of CX516 facilitation of DNMS performance
DNMS performance was significantly elevated within the first
3 d of exposure to CX516 compared with the Pre-CX516 baseline (days 1-8). Baseline performance (72%) was calculated over days 1-8
for both groups (see Materials and Methods). Changes in performance were plotted as percent maximum increase from this control level, with
the baseline at 0% (no increase) and a maximum increase of 25% over
baseline (corresponding to ~88% Correct DNMS responses). Figure
3 shows this change over the entire
course of testing for CX516-treated versus Control animals. As in
Figure 1 there were no significant differences in mean baseline
performance between the CX516 and Control group means on days 1-8
(F(1,497) = 0.76; NS). However, by the second
CX516 day (day 11 of the overall regimen) (Fig. 3,
asterisk), performance of CX516-treated animals was
significantly above that of the Control group
(F(1,497) = 7.41; p < 0.01) and remained so for the rest of the study. Control group performance increased 5% over the entire 32 d of testing, whereas the
CX516-treated animals showed a marked and progressive increase in
performance (to a maximum of 25% from Pre-CX516 performance) over the
17 d drug administration period (Fig. 3, vertical
lines). The mean (±SEM) increase for the CX516 group was
14.3 ± 3.5% over days 9-25, compared with only 1.9 ± 1.5% for the Control group over the same time interval
(F(9,497)= 3.41; p < 0.001).

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Figure 3.
Mean percent change in overall DNMS performance is
shown for the CX516 (circles) and Control
(squares) group over the entire 32 d treatment
period. Mean DNMS performance over all trials was calculated for each
individual session and transformed to percent increase from baseline
performance. Mean baseline performance was 72% over days 1-8. The
maximum level corresponded to a mean of 88% correct (days 26-32).
Each point is the mean performance over all animals
within each group for that day. The error bar indicates the largest SEM
across all days. Pre, CX516, and
Post indicate drug administration (35 mg/kg) to CX516 on
alternate days (open circles). On all other days
(closed circles), animals received vehicle only. Control
group (filled squares) received vehicle on all
32 d. Asterisks indicate significant increases from
Control group on that day (*p < 0.01;
**p < 0.001).
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Figure 3 shows that CX516-treated animals exhibited increased levels of
performance to a relative asymptote at the maximum increase of 88%
correct after CX516. Drug treatment was suspended on day 25 to
determine whether improvement would decrease or persist at the same
elevated level. Days 26-32 in Figure 3 show that the CX516-treated
group maintained the same level of performance achieved during drug
treatment (day 25) throughout the 7 d after drug testing, which
was markedly different from the Control group (mean difference = 15.3 ± 0.7%; F(1,497) = 21.65;
p < 0.001).
Carryover of CX516 effects to nondrug testing days
A most unusual effect of CX516 administration was that performance
also remained elevated on the intervening vehicle-only days when no
drug was injected. This "carryover" effect is shown in Figure 2
(unfilled circles) as a function of delay interval, and in
Figure 3 where performance in the CX516-treated group remained elevated
on the intervening vehicle days (filled circles) at
the same level as previous drug injection days (open
circles). Statistical comparisons showed no significant
differences (F(1,497) = 1.09; NS) between the
two. Thus the effects of CX516 were cumulative over days and persisted
on intervening vehicle-only days when the drug was not
administered.
Differential effect of CX516 on long versus short delay trials
Figure 4 shows mean daily
performance plotted for the CX516 group with respect to trials with
different delay intervals. These are the same data shown in Figure 3,
only they are grouped into trials with various delay lengths (5 or 10 sec intervals) and plotted separately for each day of testing. For
clarity, the 21-25 and 26-30 sec intervals delays are combined into a
single 21-30 sec curve, and 36-40 sec delays (which showed no
significant change) (Fig. 2) were not included in Figure 3. Performance
increases shown in Figure 4 are relative to baseline performance within each delay group calculated over days 1-8 (mean percent correct DNMS
trials: 1-5 sec = 92%, 6-10 sec = 86%, 11-15 sec = 84%, 16-20 sec = 76%, 21-30 sec = 68%, 31-35 sec = 62%). It is quite clear that no significant improvement occurred on
the 1-5 sec delay trials as shown in Figure 2. Clearly, performance
was enhanced in the CX516 group on all trials with >5 sec delays. The
maximum percent change across days 8-25, in comparison with predrug
vehicle levels, was on trials with 31-35 sec delays (54.5%;
F(1,497) = 25.17; p < 0.001),
whereas the least significant increase (10%; F(1,497) = 7.39; p < 0.01)
(Fig. 4, asterisk) occurred on trials with 6-10 sec delays.
This differential improvement as a function of delay also persisted in
the CX516 group after termination of the drug on days 26-32 (Fig. 4).
The Control group showed no significant increases in performance as a
function of delay interval on any of the above comparisons over the
same testing period (F(31,497) = 0.21; NS). The
latter finding indicates that drug-related improved performance was not
the result of increased training on the task. Thus, the major
contribution to the overall performance increase by the CX516 group
depicted in Figure 2 was a differential as well as selective
improvement on trials within the range of 6-35 sec.

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Figure 4.
Mean percent change in DNMS performance over days
for animals receiving CX516 (n = 9) plotted for
trials sorted by length of the delay interval (in 5 sec intervals).
Trials with 21-25 and 26-30 sec delays were combined as 21-30 sec
delays, because the two intervals did not differ in mean performance
increase. The 36-40 sec delays are not shown because they were similar
to the 1-5 sec data, which were not significantly increased over control levels (Fig. 2). Performance was plotted as percent increase from baseline before drug administration (see Fig. 3), with the baseline (0%) calculated separately for each delay (see Results). Error bars indicate the largest SEM within each curve. Open
symbols indicate days on which CX516 was administered;
filled symbols indicate vehicle administration.
Asterisks indicate significant increase from Control
group on that day (*p < 0.01;
**p < 0.001). Pre, CX516, and
Post are as indicated in Figure 3.
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Figure 5 shows performance by delay
curves for the Control and CX516 groups summed over days 26-32 in
which only vehicle was administered. The same data are also plotted as
the mean of each individual animal's performance at each delay
(inset) to demonstrate that interanimal variability was not
a factor in these effects. It is clear that the animals receiving CX516
(n = 9) exhibited superior performance
(F(2,742) = 8.71; p < 0.001)
across all delays (except the 1-5 sec interval) in comparison with the
Control group (n = 6).

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Figure 5.
Mean performance curves for CX516 and Control
group over days 26-32 (PostCX516 Veh.) indicate that
behavioral performance remained elevated for at least 1 week after drug
was discontinued. Mean DNMS performance (see Fig. 3) for all trials
across all animals at a given delay for the CX516-treated
(circles) and vehicle-only Control
(squares) groups. The inset indicates the
mean (and SEM) across animals for the same data (see Fig. 3).
Asterisks indicate significant performance increases
within the 5 sec intervals compared with Control group
(*p < 0.01; **p < 0.001).
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CX516 selectively eliminated error factors in the spatial
DNMS task
The above finding suggests that CX516 had a differential influence
on performance at long versus short delay trials. Previous error
analyses of performance in this task revealed two main types of errors:
(1) those associated with incorrect encoding or "miscoding" of
Sample position that are independent of delay, and (2) delay-dependent errors that result from "weak" encoding of the Sample, provoking susceptibility to loss of information across long delay intervals (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ). There is, in fact, a strong interaction between the two error types. The occurrence of errors on long delay
trials [long delay errors (LDEs)] has been shown to proactively interfere with performance on the subsequent trial in this version of
the DNMS task (Hampson and Deadwyler, 1996b ).
A detailed analysis of this effect showed that interference increased
as a function of length of delay in the preceding trial, primarily
because LDEs exhibited higher frequency at delays >15 sec. The
analysis of both behavioral and hippocampal neuron responses demonstrated that animals have a strong tendency to repeat the erroneous Nonmatch response (NR) if the previous trial was an LDE. Thus
the SR made on the next trial is "miscoded" with the position of
the incorrect NR in the Recognition phase on the previous LDE trial
when the position of the Sample lever presented is not the same as the
LDE. This shift to a maximizing strategy forces a deliberate error
(miscode) 50% of the time, because only half of the trials presented
will be compatible with the "biased" code for the SR from the
previous LDE (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ). Extensive analyses (Hampson and
Deadwyler, 1996b ) have shown that the shift to the maximization
strategy after an LDE actually increases the probability that the
animal will be correct more often than if it attempted to do the trial
in the normal (DNMS) manner. We have speculated that this strategy
shift provides a means for the animal to avoid "strings" or
"runs" of LDE trials. The latter assumption follows from the fact
that miscoded Samples are encoded strongly, apparently to "survive"
trials of any delay (Hampson and Deadwyler, 1996a ,b ).
Implementation of the maximizing strategy on trials preceded by LDEs
gave rise to the symmetric appearance of the same/different performance
curves shown in Figure 6
(circles), in which performance was almost completely
dependent on the position of error made in the previous trial
(p < 0.001). If the trial exceeded 15 sec (i.e., an LDE), the two curves (same and different) were a strict function of the probability that the trial after an LDE matched the
position of the NR on the previous LDE trial. If the preceding error
trial was <15 sec, performance was nearly random, but still slightly
influenced by the preceding NR response (Fig. 6). Because there were
only two types of Sample-Nonmatch trial in the task (L-R or R-L,
respectively), the performance curve is symmetric around the 50%
(chance) level. We have shown previously that the animal "miscodes"
50% of trials after LDEs, regardless of which Sample lever
is actually presented, because there is only one chance in two that the
lever presented will match the previous NR error.

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Figure 6.
DNMS performance before and after CX516 treatment
only on trials after error trials plotted as a function
of length of delay on the preceding error trial. Open
and filled symbols indicate mean (and SEM) performance
from the nine animals in the CX516 treatment group. Performance on
trials was also sorted according to whether the preceding error trial
was the same (filled symbols, solid lines) or
different (open symbols, dashed lines) with respect to
Sample, as the current trial on which performance is plotted. Only
trials that followed an error trial are plotted (errors did not occur
at 1-5 sec delays). Circles: Pre-CX516 sessions from days 1-8 for the nine animals in the CX516 group. The equivalent performance for the six animals in the Control group across all days is
indicated by X points. Squares:
Post-CX516 sessions from days 26-32. The symmetric separation of the
Same and Different performance curves
indicates total dependence on the type of trial presented relative to
the previous error trial. After CX516 treatment, performance dependence
on previous error trial is eliminated.
|
|
In marked contrast to Pre-CX516 and Control group performance, no
proactive interference occurred in animals assessed during or after
CX516 treatment. Figure 6 (squares) shows that the
same/different performance curves (over days 26-32) were not
statistically different (F(10,554) = 1.07; NS)
after an LDE of any duration and that the significant increase in
overall performance on both trial types was independent of preceding
delay (mean Pre-CX516 = 50.35 ± 37.5%; mean CX516 = 74.4 ± 11.9%; F(3,554) = 5.76;
p < 0.001). Thus, proactive interference and the
maximization strategy shift were eliminated in animals treated with
CX516.
Partial effects of CX516 on DNMS performance
Figures 3 and 4 clearly demonstrate that the effects of CX516
persisted when animals were tested on subsequent intervening vehicle
days. However, this "carryover" influence of CX516 to the next
(nondrug) intervening vehicle session was not observed in all animals
injected with CX516. Three of 12 animals given CX516 showed elevations
nearly equivalent to those of the other nine animals but no
"carryover" to the intervening vehicle sessions (Fig.
7). Close examination revealed that
significant elevations in performance in these three animals did not
persist beyond the first half (30-45 min) of the drug day testing
session. There were in fact no significant differences on drug days
between the first half session mean performance of these three
"noncarryover" animals and the means over the whole session of the
"carryover" group (F(17,497) = 0.79; NS), as
shown in Figure 7, whereas performance in the second half of each drug
session was significantly reduced for the same three animals
(F(1,277) = 9.64; p < 0.01).
Performance in the first half of the session increased progressively
across days 9-18 to the same degree as that of the other nine
carryover animals (mean performance increase: carryover, 11.9 ± 1.8%, noncarryover, 13.1 ± 1.9%;
F(1,497) = 0.38; NS) until days 19-25, when
performance in the carryover group increased above that of the
noncarryover animals (carryover mean increase = 25.7 ± 1.4%, noncarryover = 19.6 ± 1.1%;
F(1,497) = 4.02; p < 0.05).

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|
Figure 7.
Mean percent increase in overall DNMS performance
is shown for noncarryover animals. The open triangles
show performance calculated only across the first 50 trials (i.e.,
first half) of each CX516 sessions. Filled
triangles show performance on interposed vehicle sessions.
Circles (open and closed)
replot DNMS performance of carryover group from Figure 3. Dashed
line indicates performance over the same period for Control
group given vehicle-only injections. DNMS performance is plotted as
mean percent increase in performance from baseline (Pre-CX516) (see
Fig. 3). There was no differentiation of DNMS performance for the first
versus second half of noncarryover vehicle session. Error bars indicate
the largest SEM within each group. Vertical lines
demarcate CX516 treatment days. Pre, CX516, and
Post are as indicated in Figure 3.
Asterisks indicate performance levels significantly
increased from Control group on that day (*p < 0.01; **p < 0.001).
|
|
Figure 7 shows that the three noncarryover animals exhibited
significantly elevated performance (mean increase = 11.4%;
F(1,497) = 6.92; p < 0.01) on
intervening vehicle days relative to the Control group over the same
days of testing (days 8-17) (Figs. 3, 4). Comparison of the second
half of the CX516 treatment session for these three animals with the
intervening vehicle days was not significantly different
(F(1,277) = 2.01; NS). Finally, in contrast to
the carryover group, the three noncarryover animals showed a
significant (F(1,497) = 6.99; p < 0.01) decline in mean performance over days 26-32 when CX516
administration was terminated (Fig. 7). This change in performance
level between the first and second half of the session (35-40 min) in
the noncarryover animals is supported by the time course of CX516
actions in behaving animals, determined by its pharmacokinetic profile
(Staubli et al., 1994a ; Rogers, 1997 ).
 |
DISCUSSION |
These results on the effects of the ampakine CX516 (also known as
BDP-12) on DNMS performance share a high degree of consistency with
previous reports of the facilitative effects of this and similar
compounds on other behavioral tests (Shors et al., 1994 ; Staubli et
al., 1994b ; Larson et al., 1995 ; Granger et al., 1996 ). In this regard,
the use of CX516 has served as both an independent variable to be
investigated relative to its enhancing effect on DNMS behavior and as a
pharmacological "tool" to gain further insight into the behavioral
and cognitive processes operative during successful DNMS performance.
Previous studies have shown that ampakines improve retention in tasks
involving delays of hours to days (Staubli et al., 1994b ; Larson and
Vanderklish, 1997 ). The present findings confirm and extend those
findings to a task with well defined delay intervals and more intense
"short-term memory" requirements (Hampson et al., 1993 ; Deadwyler
et al., 1996 ).
Dose-effect of CX516 on behavioral performance
The 35 mg/kg dosage of CX516 used in the present experiments is
similar to that used previously (range, 30-50 mg/kg) and results in
blood levels (50 µM) that closely match brain levels
(Rogers, 1997 ). The equivalent concentration of CX516 is sufficient to increase the efficacy of monosynaptic potentials in brain slices (Staubli et al., 1994b ) and is well above threshold (10-15
µM) for producing reliable changes in polysynaptic
glutamatergic responses in vivo (Arai and Lynch, 1992 ). The
dose used here (35 mg/kg) improves recall in rats after 6 or 8 hr
delays in a radial arm maze (Staubli et al., 1994b ) and reduces the
number of trials needed to form stable two-odor discriminations in rats
(Larson et al., 1995 ). Dose-effect studies in this DNMS task revealed that higher doses (50-70 mg/kg) produced a facilitation of
performance, but the animals periodically failed to complete the
100-200 trial session. Doses below 35 mg/kg (10-20 mg/kg) were also
effective in facilitating DNMS performance, but they were more
inconsistent across animals than the 35 mg/kg dose.
Enhancement of DNMS performance by repeated exposure to CX516
Performance of the DNMS task improved on a day-to-day basis during
exposure to the ampakine CX516, over the 17 d drug/vehicle treatment period. A pronounced improvement in delay-dependent performance (Figs. 2, 5), as well as a differential degree of facilitation on trials with long versus short delay intervals (Figs. 4,
5), were key factors relating to the effects of CX516. Overall
performance in the carryover group was improved by almost 25% relative
to Pre-CX516 levels, either in the same animals or when compared with
vehicle Control animals. The effects of CX516 on performance were
incremental, showing on average a 4% improvement per daily (drug)
session, and persisted for 7 additional days of testing after
termination of drug treatment (Figs. 3, 5). A subgroup of three animals
(noncarryover) treated identically with CX516 showed drug-related
improvement in DNMS performance on drug days, but task facilitation was
brief and lasted only through the first half (35-40 min) of the
session (Fig. 7). Comparison of carryover and noncarryover groups
revealed that incremental improvement on drug days (at least in the
first 5 d of CX516 exposure) clearly did not depend on sustaining
drug-related performance levels on the intervening vehicle days.
Noncarryover animals showed markedly reduced residual effects of the
drug on intervening vehicle days, as well as lower asymptotic
performance levels. This suggests that the ampakine, when present,
exerted an influence that could be differentiated from days in which
the drug was not present.
Carryover effects of CX516 on DNMS performance
Previous studies have shown that CX516 is metabolized relatively
rapidly by rats, with a half-life in blood of ~15-20 min and a range
of about twice that (Rogers, 1997 ). A major metabolite of CX516, which
exhibits one third the behavioral potency, has been identified and
synthesized and has nearly the same half-life as the parent drug.
Therefore, a dose of 35.0 mg/kg in an animal of average weight would
produce significant levels of active drug or metabolites in plasma and
brain for ~2 hr, with a steady decline from ~40 min after injection
(Rogers, 1997 ). There is no evidence at this time of either
irreversible or long-term binding of CX516 in rat brain. Thus, unlike
the three animals shown in Figure 7, the carryover effect of CX516 is
not predictable from its pharmacokinetic profile and hence not likely
caused by the continued presence of the drug or a long-lived
metabolite.
It is possible that the carryover effect of the ampakine is
attributable to the use of overtrained animals and/or a protracted period of drug treatment, features that are prominent aspects of the
present study and absent in many previous reports. However, experiments
involving radial mazes (Granger et al., 1993 , 1996 ; Staubli et al.,
1994a ,b ) and simultaneous odor discriminations (Staubli et al., 1994a ;
Larson et al., 1995 ) did use well trained rats
and repeated injections but still apparently found no
evidence of cumulative effects with CX516 at the dosage used here. One possible explanation is that the ampakine enhanced the learning of new
and more efficient means of dealing with the DNMS contingency. All
animals were at asymptotic levels of performance before
initiation of CX516 treatments. The Control group, run in parallel, did
not show significant improvements over the drug testing period.
Therefore it is plausible to assume that the animals receiving CX516
day by day learned new aspects of the DNMS task not possible in the absence of drug. The cumulative nature of the drug effect, i.e., small
incremental gains, is actually a feature more reminiscent of procedural
learning (Squire, 1992 ) and as such would account for the persistence
of the improvement in the absence of the drug. Thus, biochemical,
anatomic, and molecular changes set in motion by the drug could well
have initiated new or additional learning (that does not occur
normally) in the task. Evidence that the latter condition in fact was
responsible for improved performance was revealed by the CX516
elimination of proactive interference.
Elimination of proactive interference by CX516
In rather detailed previous analyses, we have characterized
trial-specific factors responsible for two major types of errors in
this version of the spatial DNMS task (Deadwyler et al., 1996 ; Deadwyler and Hampson, 1997 ). One major factor that accounts for 30%
of total errors committed by animals engaged in the task is proactive
interference from one trial to the next (Hampson and Deadwyler,
1996b ).
The hippocampus plays a major role in suppressing proactive
interference in this type of task, as shown by studies using selective and reversible hippocampal lesions (Dunnett, 1985 ; Heyser et al., 1993 ;
Hampson et al., 1995 ). Animals with hippocampal lesions are susceptible
to proactive interference on all trials regardless of the delay,
whereas intact animals are susceptible only if the preceding trial was
a long delay error (LDE). Under nondrug conditions, an intact
hippocampus can protect against proactive influences, but only if
preceding trials do not exceed 15 sec and they are not errors (i.e.,
they are not LDEs); hence Figure 5 shows that a substantial number of
errors occur on trials with delays >15 sec. The application of the
maximizing strategy and the subsequent miscode error therefore could
occur on a trial with any delay. The miscode is made in the Sample
phase of the trial immediately after an LDE trial (Hampson and
Deadwyler, 1996a ,b ; Hampson et al., 1998 ). Figure 6 also shows that
CX516-treated animals became much less susceptible to the interfering
effects of previous trials, whereas Control animals continued to be
affected. Suppression of this proactive influence by the ampakine did
not result from elimination of LDE trials, because they continued to
occur (albeit with a reduced frequency). Rather, after exposure to
CX516, the maximizing strategy that normally occurred on trials after
LDE trials did not occur.
The behavioral effects of CX516 described above were accompanied by
changes in simultaneously recorded hippocampal cell activity in the
same animals. In the companion article (Hampson et al., 1998 ), several
of the above behavioral aspects of the facilitative effects of CX516
are explored in detail through presentation and description of
hippocampal cell firing correlates recorded from these same animals
throughout the course of CX516 testing.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
Received Oct. 17, 1997; revised Jan. 15, 1998; accepted Jan. 16, 1998.
This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants
DA03502 and DA00119 to S.A.D. and DA08549 to R.E.H., and by Cortex
Pharmaceuticals. We thank Douglas R. Byrd, Joanne K. Konstantopoulos,
and Janet R. Brooks for technical assistance.
Correspondence should be addressed to Sam A. Deadwyler, Department of
Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine,
Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157-1083.
 |
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