Skip to main content
Log in

Cholinergic learning deficits in the marmoset produced by scopolamine and ICV hemicholinium

  • Original Investigations
  • Published:
Psychopharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) were trained to perform daily position discrimination learning tasks in a Wisconsin General Test Apparatus. Acetylcholine receptor blockade with scopolamine was found to impair position learning. Testing on the day after scopolamine treatment suggested that a task learnt under scopolamine was not encoded into long term memory. Acetylcholine depletion achieved by the intraventricular injection of hemicholinium 4 h before testing resulted in a profound impairment of position discrimination learning. It is suggested that central acetylcholine depletion in primates may provide a useful model of senile dementia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartus RT, Johnson HR (1976) Short term memory in the rhesus monkey: disruption from the anticholinergic scopolamine. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 5:39–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Birks RI, MacIntosh FC (1961) Acetylcholine metabolism of a sympathetic ganglion. Can J Biochem Physiol 39:787–827

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohdanecky Z, Jarvik ME, Carley JL (1967) Differential impairment of delayed matching in monkeys by scopolamine and scopolamine methylbromide. Psychopharmacologia 11:293–299

    Google Scholar 

  • Caulfield MP, May PJ, Pedder EK, Prince AK (1983) Behavioural studies with ethylcholine mustard aziridinium (ECMA). Br J Pharmacol 79:287P

  • Cotterman TE, Meyer DR, Wickens DD (1956) Discrimination reversal learning in marmosets. J Comp Physiol Psychol 49:539–541

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ, Grove-White IG (1973) An analysis of the learning deficit following hyoscine administration to man. Br J Pharmacol 49:322–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies P, Maloney AJ (1976) Selective loss of central cholinergic neurones in Alzheimer's disease. Lancet II:1430

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies P, Verth AH (1978) Regional distribution of muscarinic acethylcholine receptors in normal and Alzheimer's type dementia brains. Brain Res 138:385–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis RT (1956) Problem-solving behavior of monkeys as a function of work variables. J Comp Physiol Psychol 49:499–506

    Google Scholar 

  • Drachman DA (1977) Memory and cognitive function in man: does the cholinergic system have a specific role? Neurology 27:783–790

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans HL (1975) Scopolamine effects on visual discrimination: modifications related to stimulus control. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 195:105–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman JJ, Macri JR, Choi RL, Jenden DJ (1979) Studies on the behavioral and biochemical effects of hemicholinium in vivo. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 210:91–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Gellerman LW (1933) Chance orders of alternating stimuli in visual discrimination experiments. J Genet Psychology 42:206–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Glick SD, Jarvik ME (1969) Amphetamine, scopolamine and chlorpromazine interactions on delayed matching performance in monkeys. Psychopharmacologia 16:147–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Harlow HF, Bromer JA (1938) A test-apparatus for monkeys. Psychol Rec 2:434–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobsen CF, Wolfe JB, Jackson TA (1935) An experimental analysis of the functions of the frontal association area in primates. J Nerv Ment Dis 83:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Malmo RB (1942) Interference factors in delayed response in monkeys after removal of frontal lobes. J Neurophysiol 5:295–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Mewaldt SP, Ghoneim MM (1979) The effects and interactions of scopolamine, physostigmine and methamphetamine on human memory. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 10:205–210

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer DR (1951) Food deprivation and discrimination reversal learning in the monkey. J Exp Psychol 44:10–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer DR, Treichler FR, Meyer PM (1965) Discrete-trial training techniques and stimulus variables. In: Schrier AM, Harlow HF, Stollnitz F (eds) Behaviour of non-human primates, vol. 1. Academic Press, New York, pp 1–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Miles RC (1959) Discrimination in the squirrel monkey as a function of deprivation and problem difficulty. J Exp Psychol 57:15–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Miles RC, Meyer DR (1956) Learning sets in marmosets. J Comp Physiol Psychol 49:219–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishkin M (1964) Perseveration of central sets after frontal lesions in monkeys. In: Warren JM, Akert K (eds) The frontal granular cortex and behaviour. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 219–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishkin M, Spiegler BJ, Saunders RC, Malamut BL (1982) An animal model of global amnesia. In: Corkin S, Davis KL, Growde JH, Usdin E, Wurtman RJ (eds) Alzheimer's disease: a review of progress. Raven Press, New York, pp 235–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Overton DA (1964) State-dependent or “dissociated” learning produced with pentobarbital. J Comp Physiol Psychol 57:3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry EK, Perry RH, Blessed G, Tomlinson BE (1977) Necropsy evidence of central cholinergic deficits in senile dementia. Lancet I:189

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry EK, Tomlinson BE, Blessed G, Bergmann K, Gibson PH, Perry RH (1978) Correlation of cholinergic abnormalities with senile plaques and mental test scores in senile dementia. Br Med J 2:1457–1459

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridley RM, Bowes PM, Baker HF, Crow TJ (1984) An involvement of acetylcholine in object discrimination learning and memory in the marmoset. Neuropsychologia in press

  • Russell RW, Macri J (1978) Some behavioral effects of suppressing choline transport by cerebroventricular injection of hemicholinium-3. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 8:399–403

    Google Scholar 

  • Safer DJ, Allen RP (1971) The central effects of scopolamine in man. Biol Psychiatry 3:347–355

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephan H, Baron G, Schwerdtfeyer WK (1980) The brain of the common marmoset: a stereotaxic atlas. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcock GK, Esiri MM, Bowen DM, Smith CCT (1982) Alzheimer's disease: correlation of cortial choline acetyltransferase activity with the severity of dementia and histological abnormalities. J Neurol Sci 57:407–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura HI, Snyder SH (1973) High affinity transport of choline into synaptosomes of rat brain. J Neurochem 21:1355–1374

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ridley, R.M., Barratt, N.G. & Baker, H.F. Cholinergic learning deficits in the marmoset produced by scopolamine and ICV hemicholinium. Psychopharmacology 83, 340–345 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428542

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428542

Key words

Navigation