CENTRAL GHRELIN INCREASES ANXIETY IN OPEN FIELD AND IMPAIRS RETENTION MEMORY IN PASSIVE AVOIDANCE TASK IN NEONATAL CHICKS

PEDRO CARAVAJAL; VALERIA CARLINI; HELGUI SCHIÜOTH; SUSANA RUBIALES DE BARIOGLIO; NANCY SALVATIERRA

NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY

Elsevier

Año: 2009 vol. 91 p. 402 - 402

1074-7427

p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 35.4pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Ghrelin is an endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor. Ghrelin stimulates feeding in rats; however, it inhibits feeding of neonatal chicks. Little is known about other central behavioral effects of ghrelin, and thus, we investigated the effects of ghrelin on anxiety and memory retention in neonatal chicks. The peptide was injected intracerebroventricularly and we performed open field test and one-trial passive avoidance task. The administration of ghrelin in a dose-dependent manner both increased the latency to ambulate and decreased ambulation activity in the open field indicating an anxiogenic effect. In addition other chicks were trained on a passive avoidance task and injected with dose of 30 pmol of the peptide imm