The effect of prenatal morphine exposure on memory consolidation in the chick

Neurosci Lett. 2005 Jun 3;380(3):300-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2005.01.061. Epub 2005 Feb 8.

Abstract

The central nervous system exhibits remarkable plasticity in early life and can be altered significantly by prenatal morphine exposure. Previous studies show that prenatal morphine exposure may alter the capacity for learning and memory in post-partum chicks. The one-trial passive avoidance learning paradigm with 1-day-old chicks is an excellent model to study several mechanisms of memory formation, including STM, ITM, and LTM. The following represents our investigation of the effect of prenatal morphine exposure on learning and memory deficits in the chick. In these experiments, morphine was injected into the airspace of eggs (20 mg/kg) and the one-trial passive avoidance learning paradigm was used to test the effect of prenatal morphine exposure on memory consolidation. The data suggest that chicks injected with morphine daily from E12 to E16 had significantly impaired long-term memory at 120 min after training (p<0.001) but not intermediate-term memory at 30 min after training.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Avoidance Learning / drug effects*
  • Avoidance Learning / physiology
  • Brain / drug effects
  • Brain / physiopathology
  • Chick Embryo
  • Chickens
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Female
  • Memory / drug effects*
  • Memory / physiology
  • Memory Disorders / chemically induced*
  • Memory Disorders / physiopathology
  • Morphine / toxicity*
  • Morphine Dependence / physiopathology*
  • Narcotics / toxicity
  • Receptors, Opioid / agonists
  • Receptors, Opioid / metabolism

Substances

  • Narcotics
  • Receptors, Opioid
  • Morphine