Yes / Rationale
The NMDA receptor antagonist, phencyclidine (PCP), has been shown to induce symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia. A loss in executive function and the ability to shift attention between stimulus dimensions is impaired in schizophrenia; this can be assessed in rodents by the perceptual attentional set-shifting task.
Objective
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the deficits induced by sub-chronic PCP in attentional set-shifting could be reversed by sub-chronic administration of clozapine, risperidone or haloperidol.
Methods
Adult female hooded-Lister rats received sub-chronic PCP (2 mg/kg) or vehicle (1 ml/kg) i.p. twice daily for 7 days, followed by a 7-day washout period. PCP-treated rats then received clozapine, risperidone, haloperidol or vehicle once daily for 7 days and were then tested in the perceptual set-shifting task.
Results
PCP significantly (p < 0.01) increased the number of trials to reach criterion in the EDS phase when compared to vehicle and this deficit was significantly (p < 0.01) attenuated by sub-chronic clozapine (2.5 mg/kg) and risperidone (0.2 mg/kg), but not by sub-chronic haloperidol treatment (0.05 mg/kg).
Conclusions
These data show that sub-chronic PCP produced a robust deficit within the EDS phase in the attentional set-shifting task, in female rats. Atypical antipsychotics, clozapine and risperidone, but not the classical agent, haloperidol, significantly improved the PCP-induced cognitive deficit.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/8487 |
| Date | 15 January 2008 |
| Creators | McLean, Samantha L., Beck, J.P., Woolley, M.L., Neill, Joanna C. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted Manuscript |
| Rights | © 2008 Elsevier B.V. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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