Karpova I V
Department of Normal Physiology, I. P. Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University, Russia.
Neurosci Behav Physiol. 1999 Nov-Dec;29(6):681-5. doi: 10.1007/BF02462484.
Receptor binding of glutamate was studied in the striatum, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex of rats with different abilities to acquire an operant food-related reflex in a Skinner box. The striatum of rapidly-learning rats and rats unable to learn showed significantly higher levels of glutamate binding than controls were not trained in the Skinner box (p < 0.05). Striatal receptor binding of glutamate in slow-learning rats was lower than that in rapidly-learning rats and rats which were unable to learn (p < 0.05). In the hippocampus, all groups of rats (rapidly-learning, slow-learning, and those unable to learn) showed increased receptor binding of glutamate as compared with controls (p < 0.05), in the cerebral cortex, there was a significant decrease in glutamate binding as compared with controls in all groups of animals subjected to training (p < 0.05).
