Journal Article

Norepinephrine depletion in the brain sex-dependently modulates aspects of spatial learning and memory in female and male rats

Simpson, Serena C., Sadik, Nareen, Davidson, Cameron J., Mascarin, Alixandria T., Gheidi, Ali, Perrine, Shane A., Yahya, Majd A.

2023

Overview

Rationale The contribution of norepinephrine on the different phases of spatial memory processing remains incompletely understood. To address this gap, this study depleted norepinephrine in the brain and then conducted a spatial learning task with multiple phases. Methods Male and female Wistar rats were administered 50 mg/kg/i.p. of DSP-4 (N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine) to deplete norepinephrine. After 10 days, rats were trained on a 20-hole Barnes maze spatial navigation task for 5 days. On the fifth day, animals were euthanized and HPLC was used to confirm depletion of norepinephrine in select brain regions. In Experiment 2, rats underwent a similar Barnes maze procedure that continued beyond day 5 to investigate memory retrieval and updating via a single probe trial and two reversal learning periods. Results Rats did not differ in Barnes maze acquisition between DSP-4 and saline-injected rats; however, initial acquisition differed between the sexes. HPLC analysis confirmed selective depletion of norepinephrine in dorsal hippocampus and cingulate cortex without impact to other monoamines. When retrieval was tested through a probe trial, DSP-4- improved memory retrieval in males but impaired it in females. Cognitive flexibility was transiently impacted by DSP-4 in males only. Conclusions Despite significantly reducing levels of norepinephrine, DSP-4 had only a modest impact on spatial learning and behavioral flexibility. Memory retrieval and early reversal learning were most affected and in a sex-specific manner. These data suggest that norepinephrine has sex-specific neuromodulatory effects on memory retrieval with a lesser effect on cognitive flexibility and no impact on acquisition of learned behavior.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Analysis / Animal experimentation / Animals / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Brain / Catecholamines / Cognitive ability / Complications and side effects / Cortex (cingulate) / Evaluation / Female / Females / Flexibility / High-performance liquid chromatography / Information processing / Male / Males / Maze Learning / Memory / Monoamines / Navigation behavior / Neurosciences / Noradrenaline / Norepinephrine / Norepinephrine - pharmacology / Original Investigation / Patient outcomes / Pharmacology/Toxicology / Psychiatry / Rats / Rats, Wistar / Reversal learning / Sex / Spatial discrimination learning / Spatial Learning / Spatial Memory