Effect of Amphetamine on the Learning and Performance of Mice in a Swimming Maze.

Abstract

Five groups of mice were trained to swim a maze in 4 trials and were given 6 test trials one week later. Group I was trained on saline and tested on saline (S-S); Group II was trained on saline and tested on amphetamine (S-A); Group III was both trained and tested on amphetamine (A-A); Group IV was trained on amphetamine and tested on saline (A-S), and Group V was injected with amphetamine one hour after training and was tested on saline (A after-S). The test data for trials 1 and 6 were then analyzed to determine whether the presence of the drug during training had a residual effect (learning effect) and/or if the presence of the drug during testing produced significant differences (performance effects). No learning effects were found on either trial, but, on the last trial, amphetamine significantly improved performance, and this effect outlasted the drug's presence in the central nervous system. It was hypothesized that amphetamine produced some persistent physiological change in the animals which maintained their performance.