Hippocampal monoamine metabolism and the CO2 induced retrograde amnesia gradient in rats.

It was found that in rats a gradient of retrograde amnesia for a passive avoidance response could be established when carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as the amnesic agent. The extent of passive avoidance increased as the period between application of a mild foot shock and CO2 treatment was increased. The amnesia gradient was found to cover a period of at least 60 min. Changes in hippocampal serotonin metabolism parallelled the amnesia gradient. Thus, the concent increased. The changes in hippocampal noradrenaline and dopamine did not correlate with the amnesia gradient.