Return to search

Investigation of C-type natriuretic peptide in the intact rat brain under formal and informal learning conditions

C-type Natriuretic Peptide (CNP), a relatively new member of the natriuretic peptide family, is found throughout the central nervous system. Circumstantial evidence associates CNP with learning and memory, as its expression is highest in brain regions known to be involved in memory and associated with hippocampal physiology. Here, the first study housed rats in an enriched environment, regarded as providing an 'informal' learning experience, for either 14 or 28 days of housing in enrichment in six regions of interest, which was attributed to changes in the degradation of CNP. The second study examined a group of rats trained on object -recognition task – the bow-tie maze. A difference was found in CNP production in the limbic medial prefrontal cortex over repeated exposures to novel objects relative to controls that received 'yoked learning' an exposure only to the test room. CNP concentrations also tended to be lower in rats with better levels of discrimination between familiar objects. Together, these studies provide some initial evidence that CNP influences learning –induced plasticity in the intact brain.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/7882
Date January 2012
CreatorsRapley, Susan Ann
PublisherUniversity of Canterbury. Psychology
Source SetsUniversity of Canterbury
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic thesis or dissertation, Text
RightsCopyright Susan Ann Rapley, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml
RelationNZCU

Page generated in 0.0022 seconds