Recognition memory, chlordiazepoxide and rhesus monkeys: some problems and results.

Journal article

Monkeys were taught a variation of the Konorski [26] pair comparison task, with and without delay, by first training them on a 'simultaneous' procedure involving the judicious use of both correction and non-correction training. In this task, they had to respond to a left hand panel if two simultaneously present colour (green or red) stimuli were the same (e.g. green, green) and to a right hand panel if they were different (e.g. red, green). Once they had learned this task, delays ranging from 0 to 16 sec were interposed between the two stimuli, and reliable forgetting curves were obtained. The effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on such behaviour were assessed in the next experiment. Few impairments were observed even after high (80 mg/kg, i.p.) doses of the drug, and this is in contrast to our previously reported findings with pigeons [31]. However, it was argued that the stimulus presentation times could have been too long, thereby enabling the animal to overcome any deficiency in mnemonic processing. This problem was tackled in the third experiment, by presenting the to-be-remembered stimulus for brief periods; in addition, signal detection performance was also assessed. In spite of such refinements, CDP (30 mg/kg) failed to disrupt percent correct performance on the tasks although response latencies showed an increase, leading in some cases to a failure to respond within the allocated time.

Authors: Sahgal, A; Iversen, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Behavioural brain research
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 227-243
• Publication date: 1980-06-01
• DOI: 10.1016/0166-4328(80)90031-5
• EISSN: 1872-7549
• ISSN: 0166-4328
• Language: English
• Keywords: Conditioning, Operant; Paired-Associate Learning; Macaca mulatta; Retention (Psychology); Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Animals; Color Perception; Motor Skills; Memory; Chlordiazepoxide; Dominance, Cerebral; Discrimination Learning; Mental Recall