Vasopressin analogues and spatial short-term memory in rats.

The effect of vasopressin analogues on short-term memory was tested in the 12-arm radical maze. After the first 6 choices rat (n = 16) were removed from the apparatus and allowed to complete the remaining 6 choices 20 min later. Whereas desgly-NH2-VP, AVP, dAVP and dDAVP (3.0 mu/kg) administered 40 min before or immediately after the first 6 choices did not change the incidence of errors in the second series of choices (2.0 errors under control conditions), similarly applied dDAVP deteriorated the rat's performance almost to the chance level of 3 errors. The significance of short-term memory tests for assessing the mnestic role of peptide hormones is stressed.