The effect of intrahippocampal injections of ritanserin (5HT2A/2C antagonist) and granisetron (5HT3 antagonist) on learning as assessed in the spatial version of the water maze

5HT2A/2C and 5HT3 receptors have an important role in cognitive behavior specially in spatial learning and memory but the literature concerning the role of these receptors in hippocampus in cognition remains controversial. In the present study a 5HT2A/2C antagonist ritanserin (0, 2, 4, 8 μg/0.5 μl) and a 5HT3 antagonist granisetron (0.0, 0.05, 0.25, 0.5 μg/0.5 μl) were injected bilaterally into the CA1 region of rat hippocampus, 20 min before each training session in Morris Water Maze (MWM) task. Compare with control group, ritanserin (4 μg/0.5 μl) significantly reduced the escape latency and traveled distance of swimming to platform, but granisetron (0.25 μg/0.5 μl) significantly increased those parameters. Both drugs had no effect on escape latency and traveled distance of a non-spatial visual discrimination task. These results suggest a differential role of 5HT2A/2C and 5HT3 receptors during spatial learning that ritanserin improves rat performance in spatial discrimination task whereas granisetron impairs it.