Katner Simon N, Davis Sophia A, Kirsten Amber J, Taffe Michael A
Department of Neuropharmacology, CVN-7, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2004 Sep;175(2):225-40. doi: 10.1007/s00213-004-1804-z. Epub 2004 Apr 27.
Nicotine and other agonists of nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChR) have been shown to improve performance in specific memory domains in rodents and monkeys. Such beneficial effects are observed in preclinical models of age-related cognitive decline, stimulating interest in nAChR ligands as possible therapeutics. Prior work has typically focused on assays of spatial working memory in rodent studies and visual recognition memory in monkey studies.
The current study was conducted to determine the role played by nAChRs in multiple types of memory in monkeys.
Rhesus monkeys (n=6) were trained to perform a battery of six behavioral tasks and then serially challenged with acute doses of nicotine (3.2-56 microg/kg, i.m.) and the nAChR antagonist mecamylamine (0.32-1.78 mg/kg, i.m.).
Nicotine improved performance on tests designed to assay visual recognition memory, spatial working memory and visuo-spatial associative memory, while mecamylamine impaired visuo-spatial associative memory. Ballistic and fine motor performance was not significantly improved by nicotine but fine motor performance was impaired by mecamylamine.
Although nicotine may improve performance in multiple domains, effects on visuo-spatial associative memory is the most specifically attributable to nAChR signaling.
尼古丁及烟碱型胆碱能受体（nAChR）的其他激动剂已被证明可改善啮齿动物和猴子特定记忆领域的表现。在与年龄相关的认知衰退的临床前模型中观察到了这种有益效果，这激发了人们对nAChR配体作为可能的治疗方法的兴趣。先前的研究通常集中在啮齿动物研究中的空间工作记忆测定和猴子研究中的视觉识别记忆测定。
进行本研究以确定nAChR在猴子多种类型记忆中所起的作用。
对6只恒河猴进行训练，使其执行一系列六项行为任务，然后依次用急性剂量的尼古丁（3.2 - 56微克/千克，肌肉注射）和nAChR拮抗剂美加明（0.32 - 1.78毫克/千克，肌肉注射）进行挑战。
尼古丁在旨在测定视觉识别记忆、空间工作记忆和视觉空间联想记忆的测试中提高了表现，而美加明损害了视觉空间联想记忆。尼古丁未显著改善弹道和精细运动表现，但美加明损害了精细运动表现。
尽管尼古丁可能在多个领域改善表现，但对视觉空间联想记忆的影响最具体地归因于nAChR信号传导。
