Chronic food restriction enhances memory in mice

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At least in mice, chronic food restriction enhances

memory. This experimental effect may be strongly

influenced by the effect food " deprivation " has on

motivation, which one might consider separate from

" memory " . (might...)

Neuroreport. 2005 Jul 13;16(10):1129-33.

Chronic food restriction enhances memory in mice -

analysis with matched drive levels.

Hashimoto T, Watanabe S.

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Keio

University, 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8345,

Japan.

We compared the effects of chronic and acute food

deprivation on learning and memory using a dry-type water

maze, active avoidance and passive avoidance in C57BL/6L

mice. The drive level of the animals - under acute and

chronic food deprivation - was matched by a progressive

ratio schedule. Both deprivations led to a high degree of

activity in the animals; however, the animals on an acute

dietary restriction did not exhibit a significantly better

performance than those on ad libitum feeding, while those

on a chronic food deprivation exhibited memory

enhancement. These effects were subtle and were found at a

later stage of learning. These findings suggest that

chronic food restriction induces memory consolidation or

resistance to memory reduction in addition to increased

activity. - PMID: 15973161

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?

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