van Hest A, van Kempen M, van Haaren F, van de Poll N E
Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Unit, Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, Amsterdam.
Behav Brain Res. 1988 Jul;29(1-2):103-10. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(88)90057-5.
The present experiment was designed to investigate the effects of gonadectomy on the response accuracy of male and female Wistar rats in an operant delayed spatial response alternation procedure. Subjects were exposed to 3 randomly presented delay intervals during each experimental session (15, 30 and 60 s). Response accuracy decreased as a function of the duration of the delay interval. Prolonged exposure to the experimental procedure differentially affected the behavior of intact and gonadectomized males and females. Intact males showed a more rapid increase in response accuracy as compared to any of the other groups of subjects, but differences in steady-state behavior were not observed. The effect of stimulus presentations during the delay interval on the alternation accuracy of intact and gonadectomized male and female Wistar rats was studied in a second experimental condition. The presentation of stimuli during the delay interval equally affected response accuracy of intact and gonadectomized subjects at all delay interval durations. Differences between the sexes, or between intact and gonadectomized subjects were not observed in the second experimental condition. The results of the present experiments thus suggest that intact and gonadectomized male and female Wistar rats do not differ with respect to memory as measured in operant delayed spatial alternation tasks, since both males and females were equally susceptible to the presentation of stimuli meant to disrupt ongoing memory processes.
本实验旨在研究性腺切除对雄性和雌性Wistar大鼠在操作性延迟空间反应交替程序中的反应准确性的影响。在每个实验环节中，让实验对象接触3个随机呈现的延迟间隔（15秒、30秒和60秒）。反应准确性随着延迟间隔时长的增加而降低。长时间接触该实验程序对未阉割和已阉割的雄性及雌性大鼠的行为产生了不同影响。与其他任何一组实验对象相比，未阉割的雄性大鼠反应准确性提高得更快，但在稳态行为方面未观察到差异。在第二个实验条件下，研究了延迟间隔期间刺激呈现对未阉割和已阉割的雄性及雌性Wistar大鼠交替准确性的影响。在所有延迟间隔时长下，延迟间隔期间刺激的呈现对未阉割和已阉割实验对象的反应准确性影响相同。在第二个实验条件下，未观察到性别之间或未阉割与已阉割实验对象之间的差异。因此，本实验结果表明，在操作性延迟空间交替任务中所测量的记忆方面，未阉割和已阉割的雄性及雌性Wistar大鼠没有差异，因为雄性和雌性对旨在干扰正在进行的记忆过程的刺激呈现同样敏感。
