Anandamide mediates cognitive judgement bias in rats

•Pharmacological elevation of anandamide levels induces optimism in rats.•This effect is abolished by pharmacological blockade of CB1 and CB2 receptors.•The endocannabinoid system modulates cognitive judgement bias in rats.

In the present study, we investigated the effects of acute pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid (EC) system on the valence of cognitive judgement bias of rats in the ambiguous-cue interpretation (ACI) paradigm. To accomplish this goal, after initial behavioural training, different groups of rats received single, systemic injections of the irreversible anandamide (AEA) hydrolysis inhibitor URB597, the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) inverse agonist AM251, the cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2) inverse agonist AM630, the combination of URB597 and AM251, and a combination of URB597 and AM630 and were subsequently tested with the ACI paradigm. We report that URB597 at a dose of 1 mg/kg significantly biased animals towards positive interpretation of the ambiguous cue and that this effect was abolished by pre-treatment with AM251 (1 mg/kg) or AM630 (1 mg/kg). The CB1 and CB2 inverse agonists administered alone (1 mg/kg) had no statistically significant effects on the interpretation of the ambiguous cue by rats. Our findings suggest involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the mediation of optimistic judgement bias.