IMPAIRMENT OF ACQUISITION OF LEARNING BY INHIBITORS OF RNA OR PROTEIN SYNTHESIS

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Abstract
The effects of inhibitors of RNA or protein synthesis (cycloheximide, puromycin and actinomycin D) on acquisition of learning in mice, were investigated, using various shock avoidance type tasks. Mice having uniform and superior learning ability were used. Drugs were injected into the lateral ventricle 1 h before training for avoidance tasks in 3 different maze shapes and in a 1 way shuttle box and for those based on light-dark discrimination. In all cases of training, the drugs impaired the acquisition of learning. The impairment was pronounced in a relatively complicated task such as H-maze learning, as compared to a simple task such as T-maze learning. The drugs never affected the performance of pretrained animals. The acquisition of learning was related to some specific process of RNA and protein synthesis in the brain.

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