Androgens' performance-enhancing effects in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks may involve actions at intracellular androgen receptors in the dorsal hippocampus.

Full Abstract

Androgens can have performance-enhancing effects in some cognitive tasks, but the mechanism of these effects has not been established. Experiments examined whether androgens' actions to bind to intracellular androgen receptors (ARs) in the hippocampus are necessary to enhance cognitive performance in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks. If androgens' binding at ARs are essential, then blocking them through intrahippocampal administration of flutamide, an AR receptor antagonist, should attenuate androgens' performance-enhancing effects in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks. In Experiments 1 and 2, flutamide was administered through intrahippocampal inserts to intact male rats immediately pre- and post-training in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks. Both pre- and post-training administration of flutamide to the dorsal hippocampus, but not missed sites, produced significantly poorer performance in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks, without influencing control measures such as flinch/jump threshold or swim speed. In Experiment 3, flutamide administration to the hippocampus was delayed two hours following training in the inhibitory avoidance and water maze tasks. There was no significant effect of delayed administration of flutamide on performance in either of these tasks. Together, these findings suggest that blocking ARs in the dorsal hippocampus with flutamide administration immediately pre- or post-training can produce decrements in cognitive performance, which implies that androgens' performance-enhancing effects may occur, in part, through binding at intracellular androgen receptors in the dorsal hippocampus.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Edinger, Kassandra L (KL); Frye, Cheryl A (CA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University at Albany-SUNY, Albany, NY 12222, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Neurobiology of learning and memory (Neurobiol Learn Mem), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 87 (issue 2) : pp 201-8

Dates: Created 2007/01/10; Completed 2007/03/21; Revised 2007/10/17;

PMID: 17029870, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Analysis of Variance
Androgen Antagonists - pharmacology
Androgens - administration & dosage
Animals
Avoidance Learning - drug effects
Behavior, Animal
Flutamide - pharmacology
Hippocampus - drug effects; metabolism

Hippocampus - drug effects; metabolism
Male
Maze Learning - drug effects; physiology
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Reaction Time - drug effects
Receptors, Androgen - metabolism
Time Factors

Associated Chemicals: Androgen Antagonists (0) ; Androgens (0) ; Receptors, Androgen (0) ; Flutamide (13311-84-7)

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.