Effects of alpha-methyl tyrosine and adrenergic blocking agents on the facilitating action of amphetamine and nicotine on learning in rats

✍ Scribed by Otto A. Orsingher; Susana Fulginiti

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 567 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-3158
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00401939

✦ Synopsis

DL-amphetamine sulphate (2mg/kg) and nicotine (0.2mg/kg) showed a facilitatory action on the acquisition of a conditioned response in a shuttle-box by rats and this was reversed by pretreatment with ~-MT (30 mg/kg).

Pretreatment with dibenamine (10mg/kg) impaired the action either of amphetamine or nicotine. Nethalide (5--10 mg/kg) exerted a partial protection on the depressant effect produced by the interaction between dibenamine and nicotine.

Animals treated with a-MT (30 mg/kg) and kept in the cold (4--6 ~ C for 3 h) also showed a depressed learning capacity.

DL-Dopa (200 mg/kg) provided a partial protection on the depressive effects caused by the interaction of a-MT with amphetamine, nicotine or cold. It is suggested that the facilitutory learning action of amphetamine and nicotine involves a common adrenergic mechanism. The depressant effects of amphetamine, nicotine or cold after a-MT treatment are attributed to depletion of "functional pools" of catecholamines.