Latent Inhibition disruption by MK-801 administration.

Abstract

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors seem to be involved in the Latent Inhibition (LI) process -the retardation in the acquisition of a pavlovian association by previous preexposure to the to-be-conditioned stimulus-. Specifically, NMDA antagonist administration at preexposure, or at preexposure and conditioning stages using a conditioned taste aversion procedure has resulted in LI disruption. In this paper we describe three experiments that reproduce the disruptive effect of MK-801 on LI (Experiment 1), and demonstrate persistence of the drug effect irrespective of number of preexposure trials (Experiment 2) and CS intensity (Experiment 3). The results are discussed attending to those psychological and pharmacological models related to the research and treatment of neurocognitive disorders.