Nicotine withdrawal disrupts both foreground and background contextual fear conditioning but not pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response in C57BL/6 mice.

Full Abstract

Nicotine withdrawal is associated with multiple symptoms such as anxiety, increased appetite, and disrupted cognition in humans. Although animal models have provided insights into the somatic and affective symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, less research has focused on the effects of nicotine withdrawal on cognition. Therefore, in this study, C57BL/6J mice were used to test the effects of withdrawal from chronic nicotine on foreground and background contextual fear conditioning, which present the context as a primary or secondary stimulus, respectively. Mice withdrawn from 12 days of chronic nicotine (6.3mg/kg/day) or saline were trained and tested in either foreground or background contextual fear conditioning; nicotine withdrawal-associated deficits in contextual fear conditioning were observed in both conditions. Mice were also tested for the effects of withdrawal on pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex (PPI), a measure of sensory gating, and on the acoustic startle reflex. Mice withdrawn from 12 days of chronic nicotine (6.3 or 12.6 mg/kg/day) or saline underwent one 30-min PPI and startle session; no effect of withdrawal from chronic nicotine on PPI or startle was observed for either dose at 24h after nicotine removal. Therefore, mice were tested at different time points following withdrawal from 12.6 mg/kg/day chronic nicotine (8, 24, and 48 h after nicotine removal). No effect of withdrawal from chronic nicotine was observed at any time point for PPI. Overall, these results demonstrate that nicotine withdrawal disrupts two methods of contextual learning but not sensory gating in C57BL/6J mice.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: André, Jessica M (JM); Gulick, Danielle (D); Portugal, George S (GS); Gould, Thomas J (TJ);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Program, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States.

Grants: AA015515 (Agency:United States NIAAA) ; DA01749 (Agency:United States NIDA) ; P5084718 (Agency:United States PHS) ; R01 DA017949-03 (Agency:United States NIDA) ; R03 AA015515-02 (Agency:United States NIAAA)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Behavioural brain research (Behav Brain Res), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 190 (issue 2) : pp 174-81

Dates: Created 2008/04/28; Completed 2008/07/30;

PMID: 18367257, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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.

Acoustic Stimulation
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Association Learning - drug effects
Attention - drug effects
Conditioning, Classical - drug effects
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Fear - drug effects
Inhibition (Psychology)
Male

Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Nicotine - pharmacology
Nicotinic Agonists - pharmacology
Perception - drug effects
Signal Transduction - drug effects
Startle Reaction - drug effects
Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - physiopathology
Time Factors

Associated Chemicals: Nicotinic Agonists (0) ; Nicotine (54-11-5)

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.