Arginine-vasopressin enhances the responses of lateral septal neurons in the rat to excitatory amino acids and fimbria-fornix stimuli.

In the present study we investigated the effect of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) on responses induced in lateral septal neurons of the rat by iontophoretically administered excitatory and inhibitory amino acids and by synaptical stimuli delivered through fimbria-fornix (fi-fx) fibers. In the majority of the lateral septal neurons, iontophoretically applied AVP induced a marked increase in the excitatory responses to glutamate, aspartate, quisqualate and N-methyl-D-aspartate. The responses to excitatory amino acids frequently remained elevated several minutes after termination of the peptide administration. Inhibitory responses induced by GABA were not affected by AVP. The responsiveness of lateral septal single units to fi-fx stimuli was enhanced during iontophoretic administration of AVP. The enhanced responsiveness also appeared from experiments in which topically applied AVP induced a prolonged increase in the negative but not the positive wave of field potentials evoked in the lateral by fi-fx stimuli. The possible physiological significance of these findings is discussed.