Learning and Memory is Modulated by Cannabidiol When Administered During Trace Fear-Conditioning.

Learning and Memory is Modulated by Cannabidiol When Administered During Trace Fear-Conditioning. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2018 Feb 09;: Authors: Uhernik AL, Montoya ZT, Balkissoon CD, Smith JP Abstract Cannabidiol (CBD) is thought to have therapeutic potential for treating psychiatric conditions that affect cognitive aspects of learning and memory, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies have shown that CBD enhances extinction of fear memory when given after conditioning. This led us to hypothesize that CBD, if administered prior to fear conditioning, might modulate cognitive learning and memory processes in additional ways that would further guide its potential use for treating PTSD. Therefore, we designed a study to investigate effects of CBD on fear learning and memory when administered to mice prior to administering a trace fear conditioning protocol which imposes cognitive demands on the learning and memory process. We show that CBD-treated animals had increased levels of freezing during conditioning, enhanced generalized fear, inhibited cue-dependent memory extinction, slightly increased levels of freezing during an auditory-cued memory test, and increased contextual fear memory. Because synaptic plasticity is the fundamental mechanism of learning and memory, we also evaluated the impact of CBD on trace conditioning-dependent dendritic spine plasticity which occurred in the dorsal lateral amygdala and ...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research