Banca de DEFESA: FELIPE AUGUSTO CINI DA SILVA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : FELIPE AUGUSTO CINI DA SILVA
DATE: 16/03/2020
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Sala Sagui
TITLE:

Acute application of d-LSD improves cognitive performance in object recognition and aversive conditioning tasks

KEY WORDS:

Psychedelics; Memory; Learning; Aging; Anxiety

PAGES: 38
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Psicologia
SUMMARY:

The aging processes lead to cognitive decay, evidenced by the deficit in working memory, attention and problem-solving. These changes are caused by a long list of physiological processes, including lower rates of plasticity, decreased arborization and less dendritic spines. Research shows that the application of classic psychedelics, agonists of serotonin 2A receptors, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (d-LSD), psilocybin, ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT can cause changes in brain function that persist long after the acute effects. Also, serotonergic agonists induce gene expression related to synaptic plasticity and promote functional and structural neural plasticity. Thus, this project aims to investigate whether different acute doses of the serotonin agonist d-LSD in animals of different ages, young (2-3 months), adults (8-10 months) and old (12-18 months) can modulate in the long term (7 or 14 days) the cognitive performance of Wistar rats in object recognition (ORT) tasks. We also evaluated whether the serotonin agonist can modulate aversive conditioning tasks (ACT) and the elevated plus-maze (EPM) in adult animals. We found that a single dose of d-LSD increases the preference for the new object in young and adult animals. d-LSD alone did not recover performance in old animals, but when it was combined with environmental enrichment there was a significant increase in novelty preference in old animals. Adult rats also showed higher rates of freezing in the ACT and greater time spent in the open arms of the LCE. Thus, our results show that d-LSD appears to positively modulate memory and learning in cognitive tasks, while at the same time decreases the anxiety levels of these animals. Our results also show that d-LSD has the potential to promote cognitive recovery in old animals.

BANKING MEMBERS:
Externo ao Programa - 1243905 - DRAULIO BARROS DE ARAUJO
Externo à Instituição - FERNANDO MAZZILLI LOUZADA - UFPR
Presidente - 1660044 - SIDARTA TOLLENDAL GOMES RIBEIRO