title: Is learning ability and spatial memory in rats influenced by single dose of nicotine?
abstract: A lot of studies have been concentrated on an effect of a short or             a long-term administration of nicotine in humans or in animals. The negative             effects on the human organism have been known for a long time, but these health             problems are known especially from observing smokers. The number of tasks             in human and in animals with accent on positive effect of nicotine has increased             especially with regard to improvement of cognitive functions. The aim of this study             was to investigate, how much a single dose of nicotine can influence the learning             ability in rats. Male Wistar albino rats, 25-day-old, were studied. Two groups of             animals received an intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of nicotine in two different doses             (0.75 mg/kg and 1.00 mg/kg b.w.). The third group received a single i.p. injection             of saline in the equal volume (the control group). After the drug application the             escape latency and the path length were measured and assessed in two periods             of sessions in the Morris water maze. In our study no explicit changes of learning             ability after a single nicotine injection was confirmed. Only at the third day of the             task the trajectory was shorter (p<0.05) but this result appears too isolated. So we             cannot exclude that such improvement was caused by other factors than by the             nicotine administration.
authors: Institute of Physiology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. michaela.hralova@lf1.cuni.cz
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Hralová
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Marešová
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Riljak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine