Abstract

The acute effects of MDMA and methamphetamine on spatial learning were assessed in a repeated-acquisition and performance task adapted to the Morris Swim Task. Spatial learning was assessed by measuring the mean escape latency, swim path ratio, and swim speed of each subject in both performance and acquisition components. The results indicated that MDMA produced selective effects at various doses in both escape latency and swim path ratio measures at varying doses. Methamphetamine generally produced non-selective effects in the escape latency measure and a few selective effects in swim path ratio. The findings are mainly incongruent with previous studies that have showed non-selective effects of MDMA on non-spatial tasks and selective effects of methamphetamine on non-spatial tasks.