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Effects of atipamezole, an α2-adrenoceptor antagonist, on the performance of rats in a five-choice serial reaction time task
- Source :
- Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior. 42:903-907
- Publication Year :
- 1992
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 1992.
-
Abstract
- The present study investigates whether pharmacological activation of the noradrenergic system improves attention. The effects of atipamezole, a potent α 2 -adrenoceptor antagonist, on the performance of adult male rats in the five-choice serial reaction time task were studied. Before drug testings, food-deprived rats were trained to detect and respond to brief flashes of light presented randomly by the computer in one of five spatially diverse locations until a stable level of performance had been reached (about 3 months). Single-dose administration of atipamezole (0.03–3.0 mg/kg) slightly increased the number of premature and preservative responses during the intertrial interval and slightly decreased the reaction times to incorrect responses, indicating increased behavioral activation. Atipamezole did not affect discriminative accuracy. However, in a subpopulation of rats with the poorest discriminative accuracy according to pretest performance seven of eight rats improved their discriminative accuracy when treated with 0.3 mg/kg atipamezole as compared to controls. At the other doses tested, no improvement was found. The present results suggest that acute administration of atipamezole, an α 2 -adrenoceptor antagonist, slightly increases behavioral activation, although the effects on baseline performance in the task measuring selective attention are modest.
- Subjects :
- Male
Serial reaction time
Adult male
Adrenergic receptor
Clinical Biochemistry
Serial Learning
Pharmacology
Toxicology
Biochemistry
Behavioral Neuroscience
Discrimination, Psychological
α2 adrenoceptor
Reaction Time
medicine
Animals
Selective attention
Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists
Biological Psychiatry
Imidazoles
Antagonist
Atipamezole
Rats, Inbred Strains
Behavioral activation
Rats
Anesthesia
Food Deprivation
Psychology
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00913057
- Volume :
- 42
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e7e3d7804ce426ced7880219e6390897