Post-training N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade offers protection from retrograde interference but does not affect consolidation of weak or strong memory traces in the water maze.

Memory consolidation is the process where labile memory traces become long-lasting, stable memories. Previous work has demonstrated that spatial memory consolidation, several days after training in a water maze had ceased, can be disrupted by a temporary intra hippocampal infusion of the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid/kainate antagonist LY326325 (Riedel et al., 1999). Such reversible pharmacological techniques offer advantages over the permanent lesion studies that had first suggested a role for the hippocampus in memory consolidation. However, to date the role of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in such systems level processes remains controversial with evidence for impairments and augmentation of performance. Here we investigate the role of post-training hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade in rats and mice on the consolidation of weak and strong memory traces using an Atlantis water maze protocol. A hidden Atlantis platform was employed and rats (experiments 1 and 2) and mice (experiment 3) were required to dwell within 20 cm of the trained location to activate and subsequently reveal the escape platform. In experiments 1 and 3 a strong memory trace was established by training rats or mice for several days in the water maze. In experiment 2 a significantly weaker trace was instituted by reducing the training period. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade was induced after the last training trial and continued for seven days. Reliable memory for the trained platform location in a retention test 15 days after the last training day demonstrated that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade did not affect memory consolidation in rats or mice. Our results also show that post-training N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade can lead to better performance in further retention tests conducted after the consolidation and drug administration period. Those data suggest that specific post-training N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade does not impair memory consolidation and it may also offer a memory trace mild protection from retrograde interference.