How Drug Related Cues Improve Memory | Why Addiction Is So Memorable. FPS#8

Addictive drugs are said to often worsen memory, and anecdotal reports of drug-users with poor memory are abundant. But what if these reports are wrong? What if drugs of abuse can improve memory under particular circumstances? In this episode, Michael Wolter - Neuroscience PhD Candidate from the University of Guelph - joins us to discuss how Heroin and other drugs of abuse (including cocaine & nicotine) can enhance memory for events immediately preceding drug intake. This work has vast implications for the development of addiction, and for preventing relapse to addictive drugs. In fact, drug-linked experiences stored in the brain's long-term memory centres are believed to be largely responsible for relapse to drug seeking behaviour and drug abuse, even after long periods of successful abstinence.

Manuscript: Modulation of object memory consolidation by Heroin and Heroin-conditioned stimuli: Role of opioid and noradrenergic systems. Published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32067860

Abstract
There is recent evidence that cocaine, nicotine, and their conditioned stimuli have the ability to enhance memory consolidation. The present study compared the effects of post-training Heroin and of a drug-paired contextual conditioned stimulus (CS+) on consolidation of object recognition memory and investigated the roles of opioid and beta-adrenergic receptors in Heroin/CS+ memory modulation by co-administering the respective antagonists, naltrexone (NTX) and propranolol (PRO). Three experiments were performed in male Sprague-Dawley rats demonstrating that immediate, but not delayed, post-sample exposure to Heroin (0.3, 1 mg/kg), or exposure (30 min) to a contextual CS+ paired with 1 mg/kg Heroin (5 pairings, each 120 min), equally enhanced object memory. Importantly, while the memory enhancing effects of 1 mg/kg Heroin and of the contextual CS+ were not altered by post-training co-administration of 3 mg/kg naltrexone, they were blocked by post-training co-administration of 10 mg/kg propranolol. Taken together, these data suggest that a context paired with Heroin shares the memory enhancing effect of Heroin itself and that these unconditioned and conditioned drug stimuli may modulate memory through the activation of beta-noradrenergic receptors.

KEYWORDS:
Conditioned stimulus; Heroin; Memory consolidation; Naltrexone; Object recognition; Propranolol

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