Ambrosini M V, Bruschelli G, Mariucci G, Mandile P, Giuditta A
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Scienze Biochimiche, Università di Perugia, Italy.
Physiol Behav. 1997 Oct;62(4):773-8. doi: 10.1016/s0031-9384(97)00196-0.
Nine male Wistar rats aged 27 months were trained for a two-way active avoidance task and tested for retention the following day. At variance with young adult rats, most of which succeed in mastering the task, all old rats displayed a large majority of freezing responses throughout the training and the retention sessions, thereby confirming the condition of learning impairment of aged rats. Comparison of baseline and post-trial sleep indicated the presence of a transient, but marked, increment in the average duration and total amount of post-trial slow-wave sleep followed by waking, and of a decrease in total amount of quiet waking. On the other hand, variables of paradoxical sleep and of slow-wave sleep followed by paradoxical sleep or by transition sleep did not show significant variations. Because these sleep variables are known to undergo significant variations in learning in young adult rats, the present data confirm that the latter effects are related to memory-processing events rather than to nonspecific effects of training. An additional outcome of training consisted in a marked post-trial decrement in the number of spike-wave discharges, which are known to occur in old rats during periods of quiet waking.
选用9只27月龄的雄性Wistar大鼠进行双向主动回避任务训练，并于次日测试记忆保持情况。与大多数能成功掌握该任务的年轻成年大鼠不同，所有老年大鼠在整个训练和记忆保持阶段均表现出绝大多数时间处于僵住反应状态，从而证实了老年大鼠存在学习障碍的情况。对基线睡眠和试验后睡眠的比较表明，试验后慢波睡眠的平均时长和总量在随后的清醒状态下出现短暂但显著的增加，安静清醒总量减少。另一方面，快速眼动睡眠以及由快速眼动睡眠或过渡睡眠接续的慢波睡眠的各项指标未显示出显著变化。由于已知这些睡眠指标在年轻成年大鼠学习过程中会发生显著变化，目前的数据证实，后一种效应与记忆处理事件相关，而非训练的非特异性效应。训练的另一个结果是，试验后棘波发放数量显著减少，已知老年大鼠在安静清醒期间会出现棘波发放。
