Low-dose mecamylamine improves learning of rats in the radial-arm maze repeated acquisition procedure

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
E D Levin, D Patrick Caldwell

Abstract

The nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine has been widely shown to cause cognitive impairment. However, these effects are mainly seen with high doses. There have been scattered findings that low doses of mecamylamine can have the opposite effect. This may be due to opposite effects of low doses of mecamylamine. In the current study, an extensive dose-effect function of mecamylamine was characterized in the low-dose range. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a repeated acquisition procedure on an automated 8-arm radial maze. Three of the eight arms were designated as correct for any particular session. Five trials per session were run. The number of errors per trial to find the three correct arms was determined. The rats were trained on the repeated acquisition procedure for at least 18 sessions at which time they showed reliable learning each session. Then, the effect of low doses of mecamylamine between 0 and 1 mg/kg were assessed in a repeated measures counterbalanced design. This dose range of mecamylamine did not affect performance on the first trial when the rats were naïve to the array to be learned. On trials 2-5 a significant (p<.025) quadratic dose-effect function was seen over this dose range. The most substa...Continue Reading

References

Jan 1, 1992·Psychopharmacology·E D Levin
Sep 1, 1987·Behavioral and Neural Biology·E D LevinG D Ellison
Apr 1, 1994·Neuropsychopharmacology : Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology·P A NewhouseR Lenox
Sep 2, 1998·Psychopharmacology·E D Levin, B B Simon
Oct 28, 1999·Neurobiology of Learning and Memory·A H Nagahara, R J Handa
Apr 26, 2000·Behavioural Pharmacology·E D LevinJ Gordon
Apr 1, 1993·Behavioural Pharmacology·E.D. LevinJ.E. Rose
Nov 19, 2002·Journal of Neurobiology·Edward D Levin
Feb 19, 2003·Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research·Nii A AddyEdward D Levin
Sep 19, 2003·Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior·Edward D Levin, Channelle N Christopher

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Citations

Jul 10, 2012·Neurological Sciences : Official Journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology·Ruby SultanaYu Nakamura
Aug 10, 2013·Biochemical Pharmacology·Edward D Levin
Jun 27, 2014·Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs·Carl Fleisher, James McGough
Jun 24, 2008·Critical Reviews in Toxicology·Edward J Calabrese
Apr 25, 2008·Critical Reviews in Toxicology·Edward J Calabrese
Aug 4, 2015·Chemical Biology & Drug Design·Pattaporn JaikhanOpa Vajragupta
Apr 23, 2013·Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior·Justin R NickellLinda P Dwoskin
Feb 13, 2013·European Journal of Pharmacology·Edward D LevinAmir H Rezvani
Jul 4, 2012·Neuropharmacology·Anton L BeerMark W Greenlee
Feb 15, 2015·Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior·Verner KnottAlain Labelle
Sep 19, 2018·Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets·Radhika SharmaAnurag Kuhad

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