Hormones and behavior
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Hormones and behavior · Jun 2006
Comparative StudyTestosterone modulates performance on a spatial working memory task in male rats.
Gonadal hormones have been shown to modulate memory retention in female rats. The current experiments examine the role of testicular hormones in modulating the performance of male rats on two spatial water maze tasks. In the first study, castrated and intact rats were trained on the visible platform and hidden platform versions of the Morris water maze task. ⋯ Relative to intact males, castrated males demonstrated impaired working memory retention at 60-min but not at 10-min retention intervals. This interval-dependent impairment in working memory retention was reversed by physiologic levels of testosterone replacement. These findings indicate that castration does not significantly affect acquisition or probe trial performance on a classic reference memory task but does impair spatial working memory retention, an effect that is reversed by exogenous testosterone.