Clozapine does not alleviate cognitive deficit following MK-801 administration
in the Active Allothetic Place Avoidance (AAPA) task but it suppresses
hyperlocomotion
A. Stuchlík1, V. Bubeníková2 and K. Vale1
1Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences, Prague,
Czech republic
2Prague Psychiatric Center, Prague, Czech Republic
Administration of non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonists is considered
as an animal model of schizophrenia. Blockade of brain NMDA receptors
with MK-801 results in specific behavioural alterations, including hyperlocomotion,
stereotypies, social deficit and impaired sensorimotor gating. These changes
can be ameliorated by application of antipsychotics. Nonetheless, the
effect of atypical antipsychotics on the cognitive de.cit following MK-801
application is not elucidated yet. The prezent study tested whether clozapine
will alleviate the cognitive deficit following administration of two doses
of MK-801 (0.1 a 0.3 mg/kg, s.c.).in the Active Allothetic Place Avoidance
(AAPA) task.
In this task, rats are required to avoid a room-frame fixed shock sector
on the continuously rotating arena, and this task requires the rats to
separate spatial stimuli into coherent representations and use only the
room-frame system for the efficient navigation.
The results showed that application of MK-801 increases locomotor activity
and decrease spatial efficiency, measured as the increased number of shock
sector entrances and decreased maximum time avoided. Clozapine decreased
total distance walked in the session but it was ineffective in alleviating
decreased spatial efficiency following MK-801. It is summed up that in
the AAPA task, clozapine is capable of decreasing hyperlocomotion but
incapable of alleviating deficits in spatial cognition.
The work was suported by grants MZ ÈR-NL-7684-3, GACR No .
309/03/P126 and GACR No 309/03/0715 and by MSMT CR project 1M0002375201.
Paper presented
at Measuring Behavior 2005
, 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques
in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
© 2005 Noldus
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