Ontogeny of cholinergic mediation of behaviors in the rat.
In a series of six experiments, cholinergic mediation of behavior was studied in immature rats. It was found that although scopolamine disrupted discriminative choice behavior in both 15- and 23-day-old rat pups, it increased latency to choice in 15-day-olds and decreased latency to choice in 23-day-olds. This disruption of discriminated choice behavior was not due to differential shock thresholds or differences in locomotor activity between drug-treated and control animals, nor was it specific to a T-maze shock-escape discrimination task. These results suggest that central cholinergic mediation of different behaviors may mature at different rates.
D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology
D012601:Scopolamine; D000109:Acetylcholine