Benzodiazepine impairment of perirhinal cortical plasticity and recognition memory

Benzodiazepines, including lorazepam, are widely used in human medicine as anxiolytics or sedatives, and at higher doses can produce amnesia. Here we demonstrate that in rats lorazepam impairs both recognition memory and synaptic plastic processes (long‐term depression and long‐term potentiation). B...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of neuroscience 2004-10, Vol.20 (8), p.2214-2224
Main Authors: Wan, H., Warburton, E. C., Zhu, X. O., Koder, T. J., Park, Y., Aggleton, J. P., Cho, K., Bashir, Z. I., Brown, M. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amnesia
Animals
Benzodiazepines - pharmacology
Cerebral Cortex - drug effects
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
GABA
lorazepam
Lorazepam - pharmacology
LTP and LTD
Male
Neuronal Plasticity - drug effects
Neuronal Plasticity - physiology
rat
Rats
Recognition, Psychology - drug effects
Recognition, Psychology - physiology
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Summary:Benzodiazepines, including lorazepam, are widely used in human medicine as anxiolytics or sedatives, and at higher doses can produce amnesia. Here we demonstrate that in rats lorazepam impairs both recognition memory and synaptic plastic processes (long‐term depression and long‐term potentiation). Both impairments are produced by actions in perirhinal cortex. The findings thus establish a mechanism by means of which benzodiazepines impair recognition memory. The findings also strengthen the hypotheses that the familiarity discrimination component of recognition memory is dependent on reductions in perirhinal neuronal responses when stimuli are repeated and that these response reductions are due to a plastic mechanism also used in long‐term depression.
ISSN:0953-816X
1460-9568
DOI:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2004.03688.x