Abstract

Serotonin (5-HT) is well known for its associations with a range of cognitive disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, which are often accompanied by learning and memory deficits. The 5-HT1A receptor subtype is abundant in brain regions associated with memory functions. Contextual fear conditioning is an associative learning experiment used to observe the role of 5-HT in the brain, particularly concerning fear memory. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of 5-HT1A agonist treatment and test time on the acquisition of a fearful memory in mice. To test this, mice were treated with a 5-HT1A agonist (8-OH-DPAT) or control vehicle (corn oil) before fear conditioning. Their fear responses, measured by percentage freezing, were tested at one of two time points, 24 hours or 15 days, after training. Results showed a main effect of treatment and no main effect of time. There was also no interaction between factors. This indicates that treatment activating 5-HT1A receptors in the brain before training impairs fear memory acquisition. Decreased freezing levels at both test times could provide insight into the role 5-HT1A receptors play in the modulation of hippocampal function in the initial acquisition of contextual memory. It is possible that 8-OH-DPAT disrupted the ability of the hippocampus to form a memory of the fear conditioning context, leading to the decreased freezing seen at both time points. While it is clear that treatment disrupts memory acquisition, we still need to understand if treatment is slightly disrupting or fully impairing memory formation during training.

Advisor

Zuniga, Alfredo

Department

Neuroscience

Disciplines

Chemicals and Drugs | Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Keywords

5-HT, 5-HT1A receptors, contextual fear conditioning, 8-OH-DPAT, learning, and memory

Publication Date

2024

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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Available for download on Tuesday, January 01, 2030

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