Sahakian B J, Sarna G S, Kantamaneni B D, Jackson A, Hutson P H, Curzon G
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1985;86(3):339-43. doi: 10.1007/BF00432225.
Seventeen male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to eight to nine correct responses on a delayed spatial alternation test performed on alternate days in a T-maze. Locomotor activity in an observation box was scored on 2 consecutive days. The animals were killed 2 weeks after the end of behavioural testing and dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT), the DA metabolites, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA) and the 5HT metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) determined in cortex, hippocampus, striatum and hypothalamus. Cortical concentrations of both DA and NA correlated negatively and significantly with the number of errors made in learning the alternation task, though the latter correlation was less striking and became negligible after the correlation between DA and NA was partialled out. Concentrations of DA and NA in the other regions did not correlate significantly with errors. None of the other neurochemical variables correlated significantly with either errors or locomotor activity, except for hypothalamic HVA concentration which showed a marginally significant correlation with locomotor activity. The above results, together with effects of brain lesions reported by other authors, strongly indicate that cortical catecholamines facilitate learning in the normal non-drug-treated rat.
17只雄性Sprague-Dawley大鼠在T型迷宫中每隔一天进行一次延迟空间交替试验，训练至能做出8至9次正确反应。在观察箱中连续两天记录其运动活动情况。行为测试结束2周后处死动物，测定其皮质、海马、纹状体和下丘脑的多巴胺（DA）、去甲肾上腺素（NA）、5-羟色胺（5HT）、DA代谢产物3,4-二羟基苯乙酸（DOPAC）和高香草酸（HVA）以及5HT代谢产物5-羟吲哚乙酸（5HIAA）。皮质中DA和NA的浓度与学习交替任务时所犯错误的数量呈显著负相关，不过后者的相关性不太明显，在排除DA与NA之间的相关性后变得微不足道。其他区域的DA和NA浓度与错误无显著相关性。除下丘脑HVA浓度与运动活动呈微弱显著相关性外，其他神经化学变量与错误或运动活动均无显著相关性。上述结果，连同其他作者报道的脑损伤效应，有力地表明皮质儿茶酚胺促进正常未用药大鼠的学习。
