Impairment of active avoidance response in rats with continuous infusion of quinolinic acid into the lateral ventricle

Continuous infusion of quinolinic acid (QA) at low doses into the lateral ventricle has been previously shown to cause a reduction of the hippocampal and cortical ChAT activities in rats although GAD activities were unchanged. In the present study, we have studied behavioral changes in rats with continuous infusion of QA in an active avoidance task. Acquisition of active avoidance was significantly impaired in rats with QA infusion compared to control. These results suggest that continuous infusion of QA is a useful technique for the study of chronic neurodegenerative diseases associated with memory impairement.