Effects of electroshock convulsions on learning in rats as a function of age.

Abstract

Investigation of the effects of the age of the rat when it begins a series of electroshock convulsions upon the relative amount and duration of subsequent behavioral impairment is needed to help clarify the factors which influence postconvulsive behavior in the rat, and thus to contribute to a theory of such behavior. Various hypotheses have been advanced (4, 5) concerning the effects of age at the time of convulsive treatment in the rat, but only Hayes (5), to this writer's knowledge, has published relevant data, and this was incidental to his primary experimental concern.

Periodicity and memory in mice

“…Thresholds to electroshock convulsions in rats were observed to be significantly lower at night than in the early afternoon (Woolley & Timiras, 1962). Age (Tattan, 1957) and strain (Hudspeth, McGaugh, & Thomson, 1964; OliveriO, McGaugh, & Bovet, in preparation;Thompson & Dean, 1955) have been shown to influence the degree of amnesia produced by electroconvulsive shock.The preliminary experiments reported here were designed to investigate: (1) whether learning and memory in an inhibitory avoidance task in routine-standardized animals will vary with the rectal temperature rhythm, and (2) whether the amnesic effects of electroconvulsive shock following avoidance training will vary as a function of this rhythm. …”

“…Thresholds to electroshock convulsions in rats were observed to be significantly lower at night than in the early afternoon (Woolley & Timiras, 1962). Age (Tattan, 1957) and strain (Hudspeth, McGaugh, & Thomson, 1964; OliveriO, McGaugh, & Bovet, in preparation;Thompson & Dean, 1955) have been shown to influence the degree of amnesia produced by electroconvulsive shock.…”