Short-term effects of the isolated platform on corticosterone plasma level

Plasma corticosterone was measured, in rats, after a 30 min, treatment either on small platforms used to induce paradoxical sleep deprivation, on large platforms utilized as control or in home cages ("Dry Control"group). The subjects on both platforms showed similar plasma corticosterone levels, those levels being significantly higher than the ones shown by "Dry Controls". It is concluded that the use of large platforms as control of the stress induced by the small platforms in those experiments aimed at determinating the relationship between short-term post-training paradoxical sleep deprivation and memory consolidation allow to discriminate the specifical effects induced by paradoxical sleep deprivation from the putative modulatory effects of learning exerted by the stress induced by the method.