Differential effects of total sleep deprivation on contextual and spatial memory: Modulatory effects of modafinil

• Published in: Pharmacology, biochemistry and behavior biochemistry and behavior, 2011-01, Vol.97 (3), p.399-405
• Main Authors: Pierard, Christophe, Liscia, Pierrette, Chauveau, Frédéric, Coutan, Mathieu, Corio, Marc, Krazem, Ali, Beracochea, Daniel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Benzhydryl Compounds - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Central Nervous System Stimulants - pharmacology; Contextual and spatial memory; Corticosterone; Corticosterone - blood; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Male; Medical sciences; Memory; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Modafinil; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; Sleep Deprivation
• ISSN: 0091-3057; 1873-5177
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2010.09.016

The aim of the present work was to investigate in mice the effects of a total 10-hr sleep deprivation on contextual (episodic-like) and spatial (reference) memory tasks. For that purpose, mice learned two consecutive discriminations (D1 and D2) in a 4-hole board involving either identical (Serial Spatial Discrimination, SSD) or distinct (Contextual Serial Discrimination, CSD) internal contextual cues. In a second step, we intended to assess the corrective effect of modafinil on memory impairments generated by sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation was triggered through an alternative platform apparatus (water box), previously validated using EEG recording and spectral analysis. We showed that a 10-hr total sleep deprivation impaired the CSD task but not the SSD one. Moreover, the impairment of contextual memory in sleep-deprived animals was dose-dependently corrected by modafinil. Indeed, modafinil administered after the sleep deprivation period and 30min before the test session restored a memory retrieval pattern identical to non sleep-deprived animals at the doses of 32 and 64mg/kg, however not at 16mg/kg. Results hereby evidence that the vigilance-enhancing drug modafinil is able to restore the contextual memory performance at a low dose as compared to other memory tasks, possibly by an enhancement of hippocampal activity known to be both involved in the processing of contextual information and impaired following our sleep deprivation procedure. ► Development of an original sleep deprivation (SD) model with low stress component. ► SD induced hippocampal-dependent contextual but not spatial memory retrieval deficit. ► Modafinil dose-dependently reversed the contextual memory deficit of SD animals. ► Modafinil restores hippocampal-dependent memory function.