Separate and combined effects of scopolamine and mecamylamine on human event-related brain potentials

✍ Scribed by Verner J. Knott; Anne Harr; V. Ilivitsky

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 156 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199907)14:5<307::aid-hup101>3.0.co;2-2

✦ Synopsis

Anticholinergic drugs have been proposed as possible acute model for investigating geriatric-associated cognitive de®cits, but the interactive eect of muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic blockade on cognitive processes has yet to be examined. Behavioural performance and P300 event-related potential (ERP) measures were assessed in visual and auditory continuous performance (CPT) takes in 10 young adults before and after the double-blind acute administration of a placebo, a centrally acting nicotinic blocker (20 mg mecamylamine), a centrally acting muscarinic blocker (0 . 6 mg scopolamine) and a combination dose of mecamylamine and scopolamine. Relative to placebo, single and combined drug administration failed to alter response accuracy, but slowed reaction times in both tasks and decreased subjective alertness. Mecamylamine along signi®cantly reduced P300 amplitudes, but only during the visual CPT. The results are discussed in relation to cholinergic functioning in normal and pathological cognition.