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Effect of electroconvulsive seizures on cognitive flexibility.

Svensson, Maria LU ; Grahm, Matilda LU ; Ekstrand, Joakim LU ; Höglund, Peter LU ; Johansson, Mikael LU orcid and Tingström, Anders LU (2016) In Hippocampus 26(7). p.899-910
Abstract
Electroconvulsive seizures (ECS), an animal model of electroconvulsive therapy, strongly stimulate hippocampal neurogenesis, but it is not known how this relates to the therapeutic effect or to the unwanted cognitive side effects. Recent findings suggest that neurogenesis might be important for flexible learning in changing environments. We hypothesize that animals receiving ECS treatment, which induces hippocampal neurogenesis, will show enhanced cognitive flexibility compared with controls. We have utilized a touch screen based cognitive test (location discrimination (LD) task) to assess how five consecutive ECS treatments affect cognitive flexibility (measured as reversal of cognitive strategy) as well as spatial pattern separation... (More)
Electroconvulsive seizures (ECS), an animal model of electroconvulsive therapy, strongly stimulate hippocampal neurogenesis, but it is not known how this relates to the therapeutic effect or to the unwanted cognitive side effects. Recent findings suggest that neurogenesis might be important for flexible learning in changing environments. We hypothesize that animals receiving ECS treatment, which induces hippocampal neurogenesis, will show enhanced cognitive flexibility compared with controls. We have utilized a touch screen based cognitive test (location discrimination (LD) task) to assess how five consecutive ECS treatments affect cognitive flexibility (measured as reversal of cognitive strategy) as well as spatial pattern separation ability. ECS-treated animals performed more reversals in the LD task earlier than controls over the nine experimental weeks irrespective of spatial separation of visual stimuli, indicating an enhanced cognitive flexibility but unaffected pattern separation ability after ECS. We observed no correlation between hippocampal neurogenesis and the number of performed reversals during the last experimental week. This is the first study to elucidate the effect of ECS on cognitive flexibility. Our results indicate that ECS improves cognitive flexibility without affecting spatial pattern separation ability. Whether cognitive flexibility is enhanced via neurogenesis or other ECS-modulated processes, remains unknown. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Hippocampus
volume
26
issue
7
pages
12 pages
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • pmid:26850212
  • pmid:26850212
  • wos:000383272600007
  • scopus:84975048424
ISSN
1050-9631
DOI
10.1002/hipo.22573
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
823c989c-3b32-413f-bcb2-6002e430ca9b (old id 8829150)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26850212?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 08:27:40
date last changed
2022-04-23 17:27:09
@article{823c989c-3b32-413f-bcb2-6002e430ca9b,
  abstract     = {{Electroconvulsive seizures (ECS), an animal model of electroconvulsive therapy, strongly stimulate hippocampal neurogenesis, but it is not known how this relates to the therapeutic effect or to the unwanted cognitive side effects. Recent findings suggest that neurogenesis might be important for flexible learning in changing environments. We hypothesize that animals receiving ECS treatment, which induces hippocampal neurogenesis, will show enhanced cognitive flexibility compared with controls. We have utilized a touch screen based cognitive test (location discrimination (LD) task) to assess how five consecutive ECS treatments affect cognitive flexibility (measured as reversal of cognitive strategy) as well as spatial pattern separation ability. ECS-treated animals performed more reversals in the LD task earlier than controls over the nine experimental weeks irrespective of spatial separation of visual stimuli, indicating an enhanced cognitive flexibility but unaffected pattern separation ability after ECS. We observed no correlation between hippocampal neurogenesis and the number of performed reversals during the last experimental week. This is the first study to elucidate the effect of ECS on cognitive flexibility. Our results indicate that ECS improves cognitive flexibility without affecting spatial pattern separation ability. Whether cognitive flexibility is enhanced via neurogenesis or other ECS-modulated processes, remains unknown. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Svensson, Maria and Grahm, Matilda and Ekstrand, Joakim and Höglund, Peter and Johansson, Mikael and Tingström, Anders}},
  issn         = {{1050-9631}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{7}},
  pages        = {{899--910}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{Hippocampus}},
  title        = {{Effect of electroconvulsive seizures on cognitive flexibility.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22573}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/hipo.22573}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}