title: Central and peripheral cholinergic involvement in the habituation of investigatory head poking in rats.
abstract: The effects of some centrally and peripherally acting cholinergic agonists and antagonists on locomotor exploration and investigatory head poking were studied in rats. An apparent disruption of within-trials habituation of locomotion and head-poke frequency was demonstrated for arecoline, nicotine, carbachol, scopolamine, and methylscopolamine. It is suggested that the effect may be a consequence of a drug-induced depression of initial activity. When this factor was eliminated, both scopolamine and methylscopolamine showed some slight attenuation of habituation. The increase in head-poke duration over time in controls was blocked by scopolamine; although peripheral factors were involved, the scopolamine effect had a singinficant central component. The results are discussed in relation to hypothetical links between the cholinergic system and habituation.
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001115:Arecoline / Q000494:pharmacology; D002217:Carbachol / Q000494:pharmacology; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000502:physiology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D012602:Scopolamine Derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D012602:Scopolamine Derivatives; D001115:Arecoline; D009538:Nicotine; D002217:Carbachol; D012601:Scopolamine; D000109:Acetylcholine