Summary
Experiment 1 involved protracted determinations of activity in a sensitive stabilimeter-like chamber both preceding and following injections of scopolamine. This activity also was obtained over two strains of rats. While an initial scopolamine injection markedly increased activity, such returned to near-baseline level following repeated daily administrations of the drug. A Strain effect was suggested from the graphic representation of the data, but was not statistically reliable.
Experiment 2 involved repeated presentations of a loud, abrupt auditory stimulus to the same rats of Experiment 1 following injections of either scopolamine or saline. In general, the effect of scopolamine was to retard startle magnitudes, and a Strain X Drug interaction was observed on the second test day, indicating that this retardation was greater for albino than hooded rats.
These results were discussed in terms of the possible novel cue properties produced by scopolamine and contrasted with the hypothesis that this drug mitigated inhibition of a neural arousal system.
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This research was supported by Grant No. MH-12135 from the National Institutes of Mental Health. Special thanks is given to Miss Ronda Wray for her assistance in analysis of the data and preparation of the MS.
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Payne, R., Anderson, D.C. Scopolamine-produced changes in activity and in the startle response: Implications for behavioral activation. Psychopharmacologia 12, 83–90 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00402758
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00402758