The effects of agonists of ionotropic GABA(A) and metabotropic GABA(B) receptors on learning.

Full Abstract

The research described here investigates the role played by inhibitory processes in the discriminations made by the nervous system of humans and animals between familiar and unfamiliar and significant and nonsignificant events. This research compared the effects of two inhibitory mediators of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA): 1) phenibut, a nonselective agonist of ionotropic GABA(A) and metabotropic GABA(B) receptors and 2) gaboxadol a selective agonist of ionotropic GABA(A) receptors on the process of developing active defensive and inhibitory conditioned reflexes in alert non-immobilized rabbits. It was found that phenibut, but not gaboxadol, accelerates the development of defensive reflexes at an early stage of conditioning. Both phenibut and gaboxadol facilitate the development of conditioned inhibition, but the effect of gaboxadol occurs at later stages of conditioning and is less stable than that of phenibut. The earlier and more stable effects of phenibut, as compared to gaboxadol, on storage in memory of the inhibitory significance of a stimulus may occur because GABA(B) receptors play the dominant role in the development of internal inhibition during an early stage of conditioning. On the other hand this may occur because the participation of both GABA(A) and GABA(B) receptors are essential to the process. We discuss the polyfunctionality of GABA receptors as a function of their structure and the positions of the relevant neurons in the brain as this factor can affect regulation of various types of psychological processes.

Author information

Author/s: Zyablitseva, Evgeniya A (EA); Kositsyn, Nikolay S (NS); Shul'gina, Galina I (GI);

Affiliation: Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Spanish journal of psychology (Span J Psychol), published in Spain. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-May; vol 12 (issue 1) : pp 12-20

Dates: Created 2009/05/29; Completed 2009/06/19;

PMID: 19476215, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/19/2009, IMS Date: 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

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

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Anesthetics - pharmacology
Animals
Behavior, Animal - drug effects; physiology
Brain - drug effects; physiology
Conditioning, Classical - drug effects; physiology
Electroshock
GABA Agonists - pharmacology
Hypnotics and Sedatives - pharmacology
Isoxazoles - pharmacology

Isoxazoles - pharmacology
Learning - drug effects; physiology
Motor Activity - drug effects; physiology
Neural Inhibition - drug effects; physiology
Photic Stimulation
Rabbits
Receptors, GABA-A - agonists
Receptors, GABA-B - drug effects
gamma-Aminobutyric Acid - analogs & derivatives; pharmacology; physiology

Associated Chemicals: Anesthetics (0) ; GABA Agonists (0) ; Hypnotics and Sedatives (0) ; Isoxazoles (0) ; Receptors, GABA-A (0) ; Receptors, GABA-B (0) ; 4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid (1078-21-3) ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (56-12-2) ; 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroisoxazolo(5,4-c)pyridin-3-ol (64603-91-4)

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