Thomas J R, Ahlers S T, Schrot J
Environmental Medicine Department, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20889-5055.
Behav Neural Biol. 1991 Jan;55(1):19-30. doi: 10.1016/0163-1047(91)80124-w.
Exposure to moderate, nonhypothermic cold temperature has been reported to affect a variety of behavioral and neural functions. To elucidate the effects of mild cold stress on short-term (working) memory, Long-Evans rats were exposed to an ambient temperature of either 2 degrees or 23 degrees C while performing a delayed matching task. At the beginning of each trial, rats were required to respond on one of two levers cued by a light. Following a delay of 2, 8, or 16 s, a response on the lever previously cued produced food reinforcement. Relative to performance at 23 degrees C, exposure to 2 degrees C occasioned no change in matching accuracy at the 2-s delay, a modest decrement at the 8-s delay, and a larger decrement at the 16-s delay. The cold exposure did not decrease colonic temperature. In addition to accuracy decrements, matching response times were consistently shorter during cold exposures. Cold-induced impairments were absent during removal of the memory component from the task, indicating the observed cold effects on memory were not due to impaired attentional, sensory, or motor processes. These data suggest that mild cold stress may impair active maintenance of information in working memory but not processes related to reference memory.
据报道，暴露于适度的、非低温的寒冷温度会影响多种行为和神经功能。为了阐明轻度冷应激对短期（工作）记忆的影响，在进行延迟匹配任务时，将Long-Evans大鼠暴露于2摄氏度或23摄氏度的环境温度下。在每次试验开始时，大鼠需要在由灯光提示的两个杠杆中的一个上做出反应。在延迟2秒、8秒或16秒后，对先前提示的杠杆做出反应会得到食物强化。相对于在23摄氏度时的表现，暴露于2摄氏度在2秒延迟时匹配准确率没有变化，在8秒延迟时有适度下降，在16秒延迟时有更大下降。冷暴露并未降低结肠温度。除了准确率下降外，在冷暴露期间匹配反应时间始终较短。在从任务中去除记忆成分时，未出现冷诱导的损伤，这表明观察到的冷对记忆的影响不是由于注意力、感觉或运动过程受损。这些数据表明，轻度冷应激可能会损害工作记忆中信息的主动维持，但不会损害与参考记忆相关的过程。
