title: Rats with scopolamine- or MK-801-induced spatial discrimination deficits in the cone field task: animal models for impaired spatial orientation performance.
abstract: Spatial cognition appears to be compromised in elderly and in patients suffering from dementia. These deficits are believed to be modelled, at least partly, by the administration of scopolamine or MK-801 in normal adult animals. In order to establish an animal model suited for the evaluation of putative cognition enhancers, we assessed the effects of scopolamine (0.3, 0.5, 0.7 mg kg(-1), i.p.) and MK-801 (0.07, 0.08, 0.09 mg kg(-1), s.c.) in rats trained in the cone field. This task allows the simultaneous investigation of working memory (WM), reference memory (RM) and search strategies. Scopolamine and MK-801 reliably induced spatial cognition deficits in the cone field without inducing behavioural side effects. This task appears to be suited for assessing the effects of putative cognition-enhancing compounds on spatial cognition.
authors.affiliation: CNS Research, Bayer AG, Aprather Weg 18a, D-42096 Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: Pascale C M
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Bouger
authors.forename: F Josef
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: van der Staay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000523:psychology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate; D012601:Scopolamine