Dopamine D1 receptor activity modulates object recognition memory consolidation in the perirhinal cortex but not in the hippocampus

It has been proposed that distributed neuronal networks in the medial temporal lobe process different characteristics of a recognition event; the hippocampus has been associated with contextual recollection while the perirhinal cortex has been linked with familiarity. Here we show that D1 dopamine receptor activity in these two structures participates differentially in object recognition memory consolidation. The D1 receptor antagonist SCH23390 was infused bilaterally 15 min before a 5 min sample phase in either rats' perirhinal cortex or dorsal hippocampus, and they were tested 90 min for short‐term memory or 24 h later for long‐term memory. SCH23390 impaired long‐term memory when infused in the perirhinal cortex but not when infused in the hippocampus. Conversely, when the D1 receptor agonist SKF38393 was infused 10 min before a 3 min sample phase in the perirhinal cortex, long‐term memory was enhanced, however, this was not observed when the D1 agonist was infused in the hippocampus. Short‐term memory was spared when SCH23390 or SKF38393 were infused in the perirhinal cortex or the dorsal hippocampus suggesting that acquisition was unaffected. These results suggest that dopaminergic transmission in these medial temporal lobe structures have a differential involvement in object recognition memory consolidation. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.