Stimulation of 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B, 5-HT2A/2C, 5-HT3 and 5-HT4 receptors or 5-HT uptake inhibition: short- and long-term memory

In order to determine whether short- (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) function in serial or parallel manner, serotonin (5-hydroxtryptamine, 5-HT) receptor agonists were tested in autoshaping task. Results show that control-vehicle animals were modestly but significantly mastering the autoshaping task as illustrated by memory scores between STM and LTM. Thus, post-training administration of 8-OHDPAT (agonist for 5-HT(1A/7) receptors) only at 0.250 and 0.500 mg/kg impaired both STM and LTM. CGS12066 (agonist for 5-HT(1B)) produced biphasic affects, at 5.0 mg/kg impaired STM but at 1.0 and 10.0 mg/kg, respectively, improved or impaired LTM. DOI (agonist for 5-HT(2A/2C) receptors) dose-dependently impaired STM and, at 10.0 mg/kg only impaired LTM. Both, STM and LTM were impaired by either mCPP (mainly agonist for 5-HT(2C) receptors) or mesulergine (mainly antagonist for 5-HT(2C) receptors) lower dose. The 5-HT(3) agonist mCPBG at 1.0 impaired STM and its higher dose impaired both STM and LTM. RS67333 (partial agonist for 5-HT(4) receptors), at 5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg facilitated both STM and LTM. The higher dose of fluoxetine (a 5-HT uptake inhibitor) improved both STM and LTM. Using as head-pokes during CS as an indirect measure of food-intake showed that of 30 memory changes, 21 of these were unrelated to the former. While some STM or LTM impairments can be attributed to decrements in food-intake, but not memory changes (either increase or decreases) produced by 8-OHDPAT, CGS12066, RS67333 or fluoxetine. Except for animals treated with DOI, mCPBG or fluoxetine, other groups treated with 5-HT agonists 6 h following autoshaping training showed similar LTM and unmodified CS-head-pokes scores.