Cocaine and amphetamine facilitate retention of jump-up responding in rats

Abstract

The effects of cocaine and d-amphetamine administration on the acquisition of an automated jump-up active avoidance task were examined in two separate experiments. On days 1 and 2, male Sprague-Dawley rats received one escape-only training trial, followed immediately by the intraperitoneal injection of cocaine, amphetamine, or saline. On day 3, subjects received eight escape/avoidance trials. The posttraining administration of cocaine (2.75 and 5.55 mg/kg) and amphetamine (0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg) on days 1 and 2 facilitated jump-up avoidance performance on day 3. Importantly, both cocaine and amphetamine enhanced learning and memory under experimental conditions that allowed for drug-free training and testing.