[Cholinergic and GABA-ergic mechanisms of motor reaction regulation in rats during the early postnatal period].

Examination of rats during early postnatal period has demonstrated the high rate of motor reactions (MR) of the shudder type during sleep, which amounts to 832 +/- 59 per hour at an age of 9 days. As the animals grow, the rate of MR drops to 623 +/- 38 per hour at an age of 12 days. Administration into 12-day-old rats of aminalon (a GABA analog), phenibut (a GABA derivative), and diazepam that raises receptor sensitivity to GABA and increases GABA-ergic inhibition on the whole, brings about a decrease in the rate of MR of the shudder type. The drugs that increase the content of acetylcholine, e.g. proserine and galanthamine, make the rate of MR higher. On the contrary, the m-cholinolytic atropine reduces this indicator. The high rate of MR of the shudder type in the early postnatal period is a consequence of the correlations between the cholinergic and GABA-ergic regulation mechanisms which, at the developmental stage in question, determine higher activity of the cholinergic and lower activity of the GABA-ergic systems.