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  • Tripping the Light Fantasti...
    Compton, David M; Luetzenberg, Friederike S; Watkins, Esther

    Psychology & Neuroscience, 03/2016, Letnik: 9, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    The hallucinogenic "club drugs" 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and 5-methoxy-N, N-diisopropyltryptamine hydrochloride (Foxy), albeit to different degrees, remain popular as recreational drugs. Much is known about MDMA including observations that in comparison to female rodents, males appear to be more sensitive to the toxic effects associated with abuse. Less is known about the possible sex differences associated with the abuse of Foxy, especially when the consequences of its use are examined during the neuropsychological development period of adolescence. In the present study, adolescent male and female rats were given multiple doses of MDMA, Foxy, or saline across a series of 48-hr "weekends" under conditions approximating that of a rave. Behavioral testing occurred in adulthood when the rats were 131 days old and had been drug free for 66 days. Assessments included general activity, passive avoidance, and a series of Morris water maze spatial and nonspatial memory tasks. Depending on task demands, the performance of MDMA-treated rats was inferior to that of the Foxy-treated rats and saline controls. The performance of both drug groups was comparable and inferior to that of control rats on a spatial learning set task. Generally, greater impairments were observed in MDMA-treated rats than the Foxy-treated rats. Sex differences were observed on some but not all spatial tasks with MDMA-treated males performing significantly worse than similarly treated female rats. The results are in the context of putative sex-mediated differences in sensitivity to MDMA or Foxy and the disruptive effects of these drugs to central serotonergic systems that may contribute to cognitive deficits.