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PubMed1986

Long-term effects of nerve growth factor and neural transplants on behavior of rats with medial septal lesions.

The present experiment investigated the interaction between exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF) and intrahippocampal septal grafts on the behavior of rats after a medial septum lesion. Young female rats received a bilateral injection of a fetal septal cell suspension into the dorsal hippocampus either immediately (immediate grafts) or 8 days after the lesion (delayed grafts). For delayed grafts, a higher concentration of endogenous neurotrophic factors can be assumed to be present in the deafferentated host tissue at the time of transplantation. One group of rats with lesions received NGF with the immediate grafts, another group received NGF alone. A sham-operated group and 3 groups with lesions (and given either immediate or delayed intrahippocampal saline injections, or no other treatment) constituted controls. The animals were tested for spontaneous alternation and for performance in a radial 8-arm maze, 1, 5 and 9 months postoperatively. Medial septal lesions reduced spontaneous alternation but, 9 months after surgery, recovery was observed in both lesion-control rats and in rats with delayed grafts (but not with immediate grafts). In the radial maze task, lesions produced a persistent impairment, although both immediate and delayed grafts reduced this deficit several months after surgery (more markedly and rapidly in the case of delayed grafts). NGF, however, increased the maze learning deficit especially 5 months postoperatively. These latter results are in contrast to findings of earlier studies showing transient beneficial effects of NGF administration. It is suggested that the effects of NGF in the present study might be due to an enhanced sprouting of sympathetic fibers into the hippocampal formation.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Morphine-induced place preference in the CXBK mouse: characteristics of mu opioid receptor subtypes.

The role of mu opioid receptor subtypes, mu 1 and mu 2, in morphine-conditioned place preference was examined using ddY and mu 1 opioid receptor-deficient CXBK mice. In ddY mice, the mu receptor agonist morphine caused a dose-related preference for the drug-associated place, but the kappa agonist U-50,488H produced a dose-related place aversion. These results demonstrated that the mouse is available for place preference conditioning using opioids. Under this condition, the influence of pretreatment with the selective mu 1 opioid receptor antagonist naloxonazine on morphine-induced place preference was investigated in ddY mice. Although pretreatment with the selective mu 1 antagonist naloxonazine (35 mg/kg, s.c.) did not modify the morphine-induced place preference, pretreatment with the selective mu antagonist beta-funaltrexamine (beta-FNA 10 mg/kg, s.c.) eliminated the appetitive effect of morphine. Furthermore, morphine (1-5 mg/kg, s.c.) produced a dose-related preference for the drug-associated place in CXBK mice. These findings suggest that the morphine-induced conditioned place preference may be mediated by naloxonazine-insensitive sites (mu 2 opioid receptors). In addition, chronic infusion of the dopamine D1 antagonist SCH23390 (1.0 mg/kg/day) during the conditioning sessions eliminated the morphine-induced place preference in CXBK mice. Similarly, morphine combined with naloxonazine failed to produce the place preference in ddY mice chronically treated with SCH23390. The blocking effect of SCH23390 on the morphine-conditioned place preference suggests that mu 2 receptors may regulate the dopaminergic system, especially dopamine D1 receptors, and are also involved in the reinforcing effects of morphine.

3,4-Dichloro-N-methyl-N-(2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-cycloh↗
PubMed1994

Comparison of different behavioral test situations used in psychopharmacology for measurement of anxiety.

In order to estimate the consistency of variables measured in different test situations classically used in psychopharmacology, a set of hybrid mice was confronted with five testing situations: responses to a novel object introduced in a familiar environment, responses to novel places, behavior in a light/dark choice situation, on the holeboard, and in an elevated plus maze. A principal component analysis was performed using two variables per device as active variables and 26 others as supplementary variables. The first factor was clearly due to opposition between high and low levels of neophobia. Only variables from the first two tests were strongly correlated to this factor. Variables from the holeboard and from the plus maze were highly correlated one another and with the second factor, which grouped locomotion and exploration criteria. The light/dark choice test was intermediate and seemed to be moderately related to both locomotion and neophobia. These results point out the difficulty in comparing different test devices from a psychological point of view.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Effects of selection delays on radial maze performance: acquisition and effects of scopolamine.

The effects of post-selection confinement (delays) on both the acquisition of performance and the response to the muscarinic blocker, scopolamine, were examined in an automated version of the eight arm radial maze. Long-Evans rats, exposed to post-selection delays of 0.5 sec (n = 4) or 100 sec (n = 4) during daily training trials did not differ in either the number of trials to acquire an accurate baseline of performance or in the amount of time required to obtain all eight food pellets. However, the pattern (delta-arm scores) of within-session arm selections demonstrated by the two groups of rats differed. Rats exposed to the 0.5-sec delay typically selected arms adjacent to arms from which they exited while rats exposed to the 100-sec delay were more likely to enter arms 2-removed from the exit arm. When scopolamine (0.03 to 1.0 mg/kg) was administered prior to testing, rats in the 100-sec delay group showed a greater reduction of accuracy and a larger increase in selection latency than rats in the 0.5-sec delay group. The differential effect of delay value on delta-arm scores was also eliminated in a dosage dependent manner with scopolamine. Scopolamine methylbromide (0.3 mg/kg) was found to have little effect on performance. In summary, the results indicate that the post-selection delay procedure is a sensitive and selective test for chemical-induced dysfunctioning of spatial memory in rats.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Rats bred for differences in preference to cocaine: other behavioral measurements.

Cocaine has repeatedly been shown to produce conditioned place preference (CPP) in the rat. The present study employed the heterogenous N/Nih rat stock to produce a selectively bred rat line determined by individual place preference to a conditioning dose of 2.5 mg/kg cocaine. As each of three generations of rats were exposed to the CPP task, cocaine-preferring (CP) males were mated with CP females whereas cocaine-nonpreferring (CNP) male rats were paired with their female counterparts. Rats in litters of the third generation of these selectively bred rats were used in two collateral studies: one involving the discriminative stimulus properties of cocaine and the other to investigate the ability of cocaine to stimulate activity. Results indicate that the continued breeding of CP animals has resulted in rats that prefer cocaine, whereas the breeding of CNP rats is defining a line of rats that actually find cocaine aversive. In testing the discriminative stimulus performance of five male CP and five male CNP rats, the learning rates and dose-response relationship to cocaine were not significantly different between these two groups. In contrast, administration of 5.0 and 7.5 mg/kg cocaine to male and female CP and CNP rats indicated that, although all groups were stimulated by cocaine when compared to vehicle administration, male CNP rats showed a significantly decreased reaction to these two doses of cocaine. The possibility that conditioned place preference and locomotor stimulation are subserved by the same neural substrates, that is, most probably the dopaminergic systems in the nucleus accumbens of the brain, is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Effects of physostigmine on novelty-related location preferences.

Novelty-related location preferences and activity in an exploration box were recorded for male and female Wistar albino rats following intraperitoneal injections of 0.04 or 0.08 mg/kg of either physostigmine or neostigmine. Although rearing was reduced by the highest dose of both drugs and ambulation was reduced by the same dose of neostigmine, neither agent affected the significant preferences for novelty that typified all subjects. In a second experiment designed to assess the effects of 0.08 mg/kg of the two drugs administered during rather than after confinement to the familiar half of the apparatus, neostigmine reduced rearing, walking, and ambulation while increasing defecation, but physostigmine did not affect any response. While some minor motor impairment may have arisen from its peripheral effects, the lack of changes in novelty-related location preferences failed to support facilitation of either novelty avoidance or habituation by physostigmine suggested in previous studies.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

The effects of aging in rats on working and reference memory performance in a spatial holeboard discrimination task.

The effects of aging on spatial memory performance of rats was studied in a holeboard task in which 4 of 16 holes were baited with food. Brown-Norway rats of five ages (4, 13, 19, 25, and 30 months) received a total of 80 acquisition trials. A clear age-related decline of spatial working and reference memory performance was found. The decline was most profound between 19 and 25 months of age. The speed of visiting holes and the development of a preferred pattern of hole-visits did not influence spatial discrimination performance. Correlational analysis supported the view that the working and reference memory measures represent distinct aspects of spatial memory.

Aging↗
PubMed1988

Drug-induced place preference in rats with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine lesions of the nucleus accumbens.

The conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm was used to determine a role for serotonin in the nucleus accumbens in the mediation of the rewarding properties of D-amphetamine morphine and diazepam. The effect of these drugs on CPP was examined in controls and in animals with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine lesions of the nucleus accumbans. The results from control animals confirmed that D-amphetamine (1.5 mg/kg, i.p.), morphine (2.0 mg/kg, i.p.) and diazepam (1.0 mg/kg, i.p.) produced place preference for a distinctive environment that had previously been paired with injections of the drug. In animals with 80% reduction of 5-hydroxytryptamine content of the nucleus accumbens, D-amphetamine CPP was unchanged and morphine CPP was attenuated compared with controls. Diazepam CPP was not apparent in animals with the lesion. In separate experiments, characteristic behavioural effects of the drugs under study were examined in control and in animals with lesion. The results showed a tendency for increased amphetamine hyperlocomotion, enhanced morphine activity and analgesia and decreased diazepam anti-anxiety effect in animals with lesions. Thus, the 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine lesions of the nucleus accumbens differently influenced the CPP induced by the drugs studied and, with the exception of diazepam, the various behavioural effects elicited by each drug. The findings suggest that serotonin-containing neurones of the nucleus accumbens are a component of the neural circuitry that mediates the rewarding properties of morphine, probably of diazepam, but not of D-amphetamine.

5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relationship of age-related decline across several behavioral domains.

These studies were designed to assess whether aged rats have a similar degree of impairment across a number of behavioral tasks. In Experiment 1, no relationship between the severity of a spatial learning impairment and reaction time performance was found among aged rats. This result is in contrast with a relationship that was found in aged rats between spatial learning and the rate of recovery from gustatory neophobia (results of Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 3 further showed that the relative spatial learning abilities of two subgroups of aged rats, i.e., "impaired" and "unimpaired," were related to transfer training in the water maze conducted six weeks after the completion of original training. The subgroups of aged animals were also distinguished by their latencies (but not errors) on a circular holeboard maze, and the pattern of water consumption during the light/dark cycle determined at the end of the entire protocol (13th week of testing). Other measures, however, did not distinguish the aged subgroups that were formed on the basis of spatial learning ability.

Aging↗
PubMed1986

Cultural components of behavioural epidemiology: implications for primary health care.

In this article we discuss the association of culturally linked behaviour and epidemiology: that patterns of disease are significantly related to cultural sets of normative beliefs and behaviour. The literature on this is vast and includes much of what is written under the headings of Medical Anthropology as well as, for example, Cross-cultural Psychiatry and Medical Geography. A comprehensive review is obviously impossible, but as this is presented primarily as a background paper, basic issues are raised, and related to examples from the literature, to stimulate discussion. The article is divided into four subsections which give an indication of our focus: culture, disease and illness causation; utilization and provision of health resources; health, illness and normative socio-political and economic behaviour and primary health care, community participation and culture--implications for the future.

Behavioral Sciences↗