Posttraining administration of pentylenetetrazol dissociates gabapentin effects on memory consolidation from that on memory retrieval process in mice.

Gabapentin (GBP), an anticonvulsant drug, 10 mg/kg, i.p., but not 100 mg/kg, i.p., enhanced retention of an inhibitory avoidance task when given 20 min after training, as indicated by retention performance 48 h later. The immediate post-training administration of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ, 45 mg/kg, i.p.) impaired retention performance. The amnesic effects of the convulsant drug PTZ were not influenced by GBP at any level of doses. However, GBP 100 mg/kg, but not 10 mg/kg, delayed the latency to first clonic body seizures and decreased the duration of convulsion induced by PTZ. The enhancing effect of GBP on retention was not prevented by the opiate receptor antagonist, naltrexone (0.01 mg/kg, i.p.), which completely prevented the impairment of retention caused by PTZ. Further, naltrexone did not modify the convulsions induced by PTZ. In mice pretreated with naltrexone and that received PTZ, the administration of GBP again, enhanced retention performance during the retention test. Since previous results indicate that the amnesic action of PTZ are due to an effect on memory retrieval, the present results provide additional pharmacological evidence suggesting that GBP influenced memory consolidation and not memory retrieval of an inhibitory avoidance task in mice.