The effects of development of a food-related operant reflex on the receptor binding of glutamate in the rat brain.

Receptor binding of glutamate was studied in the striatum, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex of rats with different abilities to acquire an operant food-related reflex in a Skinner box. The striatum of rapidly-learning rats and rats unable to learn showed significantly higher levels of glutamate binding than controls were not trained in the Skinner box (p < 0.05). Striatal receptor binding of glutamate in slow-learning rats was lower than that in rapidly-learning rats and rats which were unable to learn (p < 0.05). In the hippocampus, all groups of rats (rapidly-learning, slow-learning, and those unable to learn) showed increased receptor binding of glutamate as compared with controls (p < 0.05), in the cerebral cortex, there was a significant decrease in glutamate binding as compared with controls in all groups of animals subjected to training (p < 0.05).