Piracetam and fish orientation during parabolic aircraft flight.
Goldfish were flown in parabolic Keplerian trajectories in a KC-135 aircraft to assay both the effectiveness of piracetam as an anti-motion sickness drug and the effectiveness of state-dependent training during periods of oscillating gravity levels. Single-frame analyses of infrared films were performed for two classes of responses--roll rates in hypogravity or hypogravity orienting responses (LGR) and climbing responses in hypergravity or hypergravity orienting responses (HGR). In Experiment I, preflight training with a vestibular stressor facilitated suppression of LGR by the 10th parabola. An inverse correlation was found between the magnitudes of LGR and HGR. Piracetam was not effective in a state-dependent design, but the drug did significantly increase HGR when injected into trained fish shortly before flight. In Experiment II, injections of saline, piracetam, and modifiers of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)--aminooxyacetic acid (AOAA) and isonicotinic acid (INH)--did not modify LGR. AOAA did significantly increase HGR. Thus, the preflight training had a beneficial effect in reducing disorientation in the fish in weightlessness, but the drugs employed were ineffective.
D000625:Aminooxyacetic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D005399:Fishes; D007539:Isonicotinic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D009041:Motion Sickness / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects; D010889:Piracetam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011760:Pyrrolidinones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013026:Space Flight; D014893:Weightlessness / Q000009:adverse effects
D007539:Isonicotinic Acids; D011760:Pyrrolidinones; D000625:Aminooxyacetic Acid; D010889:Piracetam