Nerve growth factor improves spatial learning and restores hippocampal cholinergic fibers in rats withdrawn from chronic treatment with ethanol

Prolonged intake of ethanol causes enduring memory deficits, which are paralleled by partial depletion of hippocampal cholinergic afferents.

The vehicle-infused withdrawn animals showed impaired performance on a spatial reference memory version of the Morris water maze task, both during the task acquisition and on the retention test. In contrast, NGF-treated withdrawn rats were able to learn the task as well as controls, and significantly outperformed the vehicle-infused withdrawn rats.