Estrogen affects performance of ovariectomized rats in a two-choice water-escape working memory task.

To determine if estrogen would protect treated rats from deficits in performance on a working memory task across time, 18 female 6-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to a criterion on a water-escape spatial delayed matching-to-sample problem. Following training, rats were ovariectomized, and nine were maintained on estrogen (polyestradiol-phosphate, 0.5 mg every 3 weeks) and nine on its vehicle for 200 days. After recovery from surgery, the rats were tested for performance every 6 weeks under three conditions: 5 min retention interval (RI); 30 min RI; and 30 min RI with an emotional experience during the RI. Analysis of correct choices revealed that estrogen-treated rats made more correct choices (p < .05) than controls on the 5 min undisturbed interval; estrogen tended to impair performance on the emotionally distracting interval. Estrogen apparently protected working memory on the undisturbed trials and might be pertinent to the maintenance of memory in female mammals.

Rats that acquire a THC discrimination more rapidly are more sensitive to THC and faster in reaching operant criteria.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from saline in a two-lever operant task using successive training criteria. Untreated animals were first shaped to barpress for a milk reward with one lever available. As each animal reached criterion the second lever was installed, the first lever was removed, and the animal was treated with 3.0 mg/kg THC 30 min prior to barpress training. When criterion on the second lever was reached the rats were trained to discriminate THC from vehicle injections with both levers available. Following acquisition of the discrimination, test doses of THC at 0.00, 0.375, 0.75, 1.5 and 3.0 mg/kg revealed that the half of the 24 rats who reached criterion (STC) more rapidly exhibited significantly greater sensitivity to THC at the 0.75 mg/kg test dose than did the 12 slow-learner rats; the former group generated an ED50 of 0.77 mg/kg, whereas the ED50 for the later group was 1.63 mg/kg. The fast learners acquired both the initial barpress response and the discrimination more rapidly than did slow-learners. Results suggest that some animals are inherently more sensitive to THC and faster in meeting learning criteria.

MRI of cervical carcinoma.

MRI is useful for demonstrating enlarged retroperitoneal lymph nodes and for demonstrating the carcinoma mass in patients with carcinoma of the cervix. MRI evaluation of the parametria appears promising, but further studies are necessary to elucidate the optimal imaging parameters and to better define the overall accuracy of MRI compared to the clinical evaluation of the parametria.

Effects of time and an educational presentation on student attitudes toward wife-beating.

To determine if a public outreach educational presentation on domestic violence would produce change in attitudes toward wife-beating and if the attitude change would persist over time, 36 female and male university students were quasi-randomly assigned to groups. Half of the subjects received a 20-minute presentation on domestic violence (Group P), and half did not receive a presentation (Group NP). Groups were then tested on their responses on the Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating (IBWB). Three weeks later, groups were retested on their responses to the scale. MANOVA revealed that attitudes of Group P were significantly more negative toward wife-beating than attitudes of Group NP on three of the five IBWB subscales and on three of the 31 IBWB items subsumed under the subscales. Data supported the prediction that public outreach efforts would produce more negative attitudes toward wife-beating and that attitude change would not deteriorate over time.

MR demonstration of extensive pelvic involvement in vulvar hemangiomas.

Magnetic resonance imaging of two patients with vulvar hemangiomas noninvasively demonstrated unexpected pelvic involvement. Magnetic resonance is an excellent method for initial evaluation and follow-up of these lesions.

Those cheating rats: male and female rats use odor trails in a water-escape "working memory" task.

Three-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a working memory win-stay (spatial delayed matching-to-sample) water-escape task with the escape platform location the same for all subjects on a given trial, a procedure that maximizes the buildup of an odor trail to the escape platform. In subsequent tests during which the location of the escape platform varied randomly between subjects, the rats, especially the females, while continuing to perform above chance level, made increased errors. Varying the platform location between subjects eliminated odor trail as a nonambiguous cue for locating the escape platform. In a second experiment females performed better than males on a reference memory odor trail discrimination task which involved following the path of like-gender "pathmaker" rats to the escape platform. The relatively poor use of odor trails by the males was associated with a high frequency of choosing a preferred choice section or returning to the choice section selected first on the immediately preceding trial (perseveration). Collectively, the two experiments demonstrate that rats can use either working memory or odor trails to locate an escape platform in a water maze, and that they, especially females, will use odor trails in a working memory task if odor trails are available. Clearly, the location of the escape platform should be varied randomly between subjects in tests of working memory.