Cholinergic involvement in the cortical and hippocampal Fos expression induced in the rat by placement in a novel environment.
Placing rats into a series of novel environments induced vigorous c-fos expression in the infralimbic, anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices, and in the hippocampus. Pretreatment with the antimuscarinic drugs scopolamine and atropine was able to greatly suppress novelty-induced Fos expression at these sites. Placement into the novel environments also induced Fos expression in the habenula and the paraventricular thalamic nucleus, but the response at these sites did not appear to be sensitive to cholinergic blockade. These findings suggest that cholinergic mechanisms play an important role in ability of behavioral events to influence cortical and hippocampal immediate-early gene expression and are consistent with the possibility that some of the effects of anticholinergic drugs on placticity and learning may be mediated through alterations in the expression of these genes.
Wirtshafter
David
D
Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, M/C 285, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL 60607-7137, USA. davew@uic.edu
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001285:Atropine / Q000494:pharmacology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D019262:Habenula / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D010286:Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic; D001285:Atropine; D012601:Scopolamine