BMY 21502 and piracetam facilitate performance of two-choice win-stay water-escape in normal rats.

Sprague-Dawley rats given either 5 or 10 mg/kg of a new compound, BMY 21502, 150 mg/kg of piracetam or a dose of methylcellulose vehicle (p.o.) daily for 38 days beginning two days before training were compared on performance of a win-stay water-escape task in a circular water maze requiring the use of working memory. The task involved giving the rats pairs of trials in which the location of a submerged escape platform remained the same within a pair of trials but changed semirandomly across pairs. Rats receiving either 5 mg/kg BMY 21502 or piracetam made more correct choices than did rats receiving only the vehicle (p less than 0.05 in each case). The facilitated performance was associated with making fewer perseverative responses that resulted in errors.