[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

the β4 nAChR subunit. Mice were tested in a battery of cognitive tasks including the Y-maze
(spontaneous alternations), the novel object recognition task, the Barnes circular maze, and
contextual and cued fear conditioning. There were no genotype differences in mouse
performance in any of the spatial and working memory tasks used. However, there were
interactive gender- and genotype-dependent differences in long-term memory retention assessed
in the Barnes maze and the contextual fear conditioning tests 71 and 73 days, respectively, after
training. In the Barnes maze memory retention test, male β4 -/- mice made more working memory
errors and showed reduced use of the spatial search strategy (i.e., directly approaching the target
hole based on spatial cues), indicating potential spatial memory deficits compared to WT mice.
Instead, male β4 -/- mice were using random or serial hole by hole search strategies. In the
contextual fear conditioning memory retention test, male β4 -/- mice exhibited reduced freezing
time in the context previously paired with foot-shock compared to WT mice. Interestingly, these
same deficits were not observed in female β4 -/- or WT mice. In conclusion, the present findings
indicate that lack of the β4 nAChR subunit resulted in deficits in hippocampus dependent longterm
memory retention tests in male, but not female, mice. Thus, long-term retention of spatial
memories in males appears to be at least partially dependent on β4-containing nAChRs in the
hippocampus.
Disclosures: H.M. Jarrell, None; A. Markou , None; S. Semenova, None.
Poster
292. Acetylcholine, Neurotrophins, and Cognition
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 292.11/SS24
Topic: F.02.f. Fear and aversive learning and memory
Support: NIH grant P20 RR15567
Title: Brain derived neurotrophic factor mRNA in the hippocampus (dorsolateral pallium) of
Rainbow trout is differentially regulated by coping strategy, revealed in a new model of fear
conditioning
Authors: *R. E. CARPENTER 1 , D. H. ARENDT 1 , J. P. SMITH 1 , I. SABIRZHANOV 2 , T. G.
CLARK 2 , C. H. SUMMERS 1 ;
1 Dept Biol, Univ. South Dakota, Vermillion, SD; 2 Neurosci. Group, Basic Biomed. Sci., Sanford
School of Medicine, SD
Abstract: Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an important factor in the molecular
machinery of synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory formation. Recently we have developed a