A possible role for the pituitary-adrenal system in the effects of nicotine on avoidance behaviour.
Rats were trained on a Sidman lever-pressing avoidance task. Half the animals received 0.4 mg nicotine/kg before each avoidance session. Rats which were successful performers had heavier adrenal glands. Nicotine facillitated avoidance and increased adrenal weight. Successful avoiders also tended to have higher hippocampal 5-HT levels. Hypothalamic 5-HT was elevated in animals which had just received many shocks during the final avoidance session but not in rats which had received a comparable number of unavoidable shocks. No effects of nicotine on noradrenaline or corticosterone were detected nor were these measures related to avoidance performance.
D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism; D009929:Organ Size / Q000187:drug effects; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism
D012701:Serotonin; D009538:Nicotine; D003345:Corticosterone; D009638:Norepinephrine