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This study was conducted to prove that there exists a relation between the spleen and learning and memory as Oriental medicine believesTo promote the function of the Spleen, Guibitang was administered to rats in this study. Rats were 250～300g Sprague-Dawley, and were divided into three groups. One was the normal group without any pretreatment. Another was the control group which was administered normal saline and the abdominal injection of L-NAME before learning and memory test. And the 3rd was the sample group, to which was administered Guibitang extract and (no 'the') abdominal injection of L-NAME before the learning and memory test. Each group was made up of 12 rats. Morris water maze and radial arm maze tasks were performed in the learning test and Morris water maze task in the memory test. For 2 days to evaluate the ability of learning in the Morris water maze, 16 trials were carried out and first latency(lapse time to find the escape platform for the first time) was measured. The next day, to evaluate the ability of memory, the escape platform was eliminated from the maze, and total path, target entry number, first latency and memory score were measured. 48hrs before the radial arm maze task was performed, bait was deprived from each group. After learning test, bait was permitted to each group. So 85% of the body weight was maintained for 6 days of the test. Each of the eight arms was baited; correct choice numer and error were counted; each trial was finished when the rat had entered each of the eight arms, or more than 10 minutes had elapsed. The results were as follows: In the learning test, the first latency of the sample group in the Morris water maze showed evident improvement of learning compared to control group at the 11th, 12th, 13th trial of 16 trials, and correct choice number in radial arm maze showed noticeable improvement compared to the control group at 3rd, 4th and 5th; In the memory test, the memory score of the sample group showed evident improvement compared to the control group. From the above results, the administration of Guibitang, which tonifies the function of the Spleen, could enhance the ability of learning and memory. So it was suggested that the Spleen has a relation with learning and memory.
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