Behavioral change and memory impairment following transient forebrain ischemia in rats with sercvere famage in CA1 sector of hippocampus

Behavioral change and memory impairment following transient forebrain ischemia were studied in rats. Ischemia was indeced by a combination of bilateral common carotid artery occlusion and induced hypotension. During the recovery period, behavioral change was evaluated by openfield method. Active avoidance response was used for quantitive analysis of memory desturbance. Histopathological examination was performed 7 days after ischmic insult. Ischemia caused marked elevation in locomoter activity and suppressed preening and grooming. Conditioned avoidance respone was significantly disturbed after ischemic insult. Forebrain ischemia produced severe neuronal necrosis in CA1 sector of hippocampus, while lesser damage in caudate putamen and neocortex. These results suggest that severe neuronal damage in CA1 sector produces behavioral change and memory impairment after forebrain ischemia in rats.