Fatty acid amide hydrolase ( / ) mice exhibit an increased sensitivity to the disruptive effects of anandamide or oleamide in a working memory water maze task

Although recent evidence suggests that fatty acid amide hy-drolase (FAAH) may represent a potential therapeutic target, few published studies have investigated FAAH or its fatty acid amide substrates (FAAs) in animal models of learning and mem-ory. Therefore, our primary goal was to determine whether FAAH (/) mice, which possess elevated levels of anandam-ide and other FAAs, would display altered performance in four Morris water maze tasks: acquisition of a hidden fixed platform, reversal learning, working memory, and probe trials. FAAH (/) mice failed to exhibit deficits in any task; in fact, they initially acquired the working memory task more rapidly than FAAH (/) mice. The second goal of this study was to inves-tigate whether the FAAH inhibitor OL-135 (1-oxo-1[5-(2-pyri-dyl)-2-yl]-7-phenylheptane), anandamide, other FAAs, an