Patent ID: 7572434

Claim:
A method for assessing the effect of a drug on long term memory formation comprising: a) administering said drug to an animal having an inducible activator and/or an inducible repressor wherein said inducible activator and/or inducible repressor is/are under the control of a promoter, wherein said activator is a CREB/CREM/ATF-1 subfamily member associated with potentiation of long term memory and said repressor is an antagonist of said activator and is associated with blocking of long term memory; b) inducing expression of said activator and/or repressor, wherein inducing expression of said activator and/or repressor comprises activating said promoter effective to induce expression of said activator and/or repressor; c) training said animal under conditions appropriate to produce long term memory formation in said animal, wherein conditions appropriate to produce long term memory formation comprise multiple training sessions with a rest interval between training sessions; d) assessing long term memory formation in said animal trained in step c); and e) comparing long term memory formation assessed in step d) with long term memory formation produced in a control animal to which said drug has not been administered.