Puromycin-induced retention deficit in goldfish as a function of attained training performance level

Abstract

Goldfish received either 20 or 50 active avoidance training trials followed by puromycin (or no-treatment) and 10 retraining trials either 1 or 7 days following training. While 50 trials resulted in significantly more training avoidances than 20 trials, the groups which received puromycin showed equivalent retention deficits on Day 7. A within-group comparison of fish whose training performance was high or low further revealed that the degree of the retention deficit was independent of achieved training performance level. These data support the hypothesis that puromycin interferes with a memory fixation process that is initiated only upon completion of the training session.