Nitric oxide plays a role in the long term potentiation mechanisms produced in the mammalian hippocampus during spatial learning. A great deal of data has demonstrated that the dorsolateral telencephalon of fish could be homologous to the mammalian hippocampus sharing functional similarities. In the present study, we analyzed the role of nitric oxide in spatial learning in teleost fish. In Experiment 1, we studied the effects of the inhibition of telencephalic nitric oxide in goldfish during the acquisition of a spatial task. The results showed that nitric oxide is involved in the learning of a spatial task. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of the inhibition of telencephalic nitric oxide in goldfish for the retrieval of a learned spatial response. The results indicated that the retrieval of the information previously stored is not dependent of the nitric oxide. The last experiment analyzed the role of the telencephalic nitric oxide in place and cue learning. Results showed a clear impairment in place but not in cue learning. As a whole, these results indicate that fish and mammals, could have a relational memory system mediated by similar biochemical mechanisms.

一氧化氮在哺乳动物海马体空间学习过程中产生的长期增强机制中起作用。大量数据表明，鱼类的背外侧端脑可能与哺乳动物海马体同源，具有相似的功能。在本研究中，我们分析了一氧化氮在硬骨鱼空间学习中的作用。在实验 1 中，我们研究了金鱼在获得空间任务期间抑制端脑一氧化氮的影响。结果表明，一氧化氮参与了空间任务的学习。实验 2 评估了抑制金鱼端脑一氧化氮对恢复学习空间反应的影响。结果表明，先前存储的信息的检索不依赖于一氧化氮。最后一个实验分析了端脑一氧化氮在原位和线索学习中的作用。结果显示在适当的地方有明显的障碍，但在提示学习中没有。总的来说，这些结果表明鱼类和哺乳动物可能具有由类似生化机制介导的关系记忆系统。