Retention of a Spatial Task after Intraperitoneal, Subcutaneous or Intravenous Injections of Equal Doses of Atropine,

摘要

The retention of a well learned spatial task was assessed in rats at 10, 20,30, 40 and 50 minutes after atropine sulfate (30 mg/kg) was administered by intraperitoneal (ip), subcutaneous (sc) or intravenous (iv) injection. Cholinergic blockade disrupted first choice accuracy and escape latency measures of spatial retention. The iv atropine treatment produced a significant impairment in both choice accuracy and escape latency. The ip and sc groups never showed significant spatial impairments when compared with the iv saline control group. Frequent occurrences of behavioral stereotypy were observed with atropine administered by iv injection. One would predict from the present findings that a drug might produce a highly variable affect on a specific behavior depending on whether it is administered iv or by another parenteral route.