Attenuation of muscarinic receptor blockade-induced impairment of spatial delayed alternation performance by the triazole MDL 26,479

• Published in: Psychopharmacologia Vol. 109; no. 1-2; pp. 223 - 230
• Main Authors: HOLLEY, L. A, DUDCHENKO, P, SARTER, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Springer 01-10-1992
• Subjects: Animals; Antidepressive Agents - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition - drug effects; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Male; Medical sciences; Memory, Short-Term - drug effects; Muscarinic Antagonists - pharmacology; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Performance - drug effects; Psychopharmacology; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, Muscarinic - drug effects; Scopolamine - antagonists & inhibitors; Scopolamine - pharmacology; Triazoles - pharmacology; Memory disorder; Intraperitoneal administration; Rat; Psychotropic; Rodentia; Response alternance; Space perception; Benzodiazepine receptor; Vertebrata; Experimental disease; Mammalia; Animal; Nootropic agent; Muscarinic receptor; Mechanism of action; Parasympatholytic
• ISSN: 0033-3158; 1432-2072
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02245504

The interactions between the effects of MDL 26,479 (0.1, 0.39, 1.56, 6.25 mg/kg; IP) and the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine (0.03, 0.1 mg/kg; IP) on the performance of rats in a delayed alternation task (retention intervals: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 s) were examined. Scopolamine dose-dependently reduced the relative number of correct responses and interacted with the effects of the length of retention intervals. MDL 26,479 did not affect correct responding but attenuated the behavioral impairments produced by scopolamine. Although this task did not explicitly exclude the possibility that the animals acquired mediational response strategies, and although the effects of scopolamine appeared to interfere with the execution of these strategies, to a major extent, the attenuative effects of MDL 26,479 were not related to its effects on mediational strategies. Thus, it is concluded that administration of MDL 26,479 mainly resulted in a re-establishment of the animals' ability to memorize and/or to recall the information required to exert correct responses.