Paradoxical sleep deprivation in female rats alters drug-induced behaviors.

Paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) induces changes in behaviors induced by dopaminergic and cholinergic agonists, including increased aggressive behavior and stereotypy, decreased number of yawns, and shedding of bloody tears in male rats. In female rats, however, very little is known about the relationship between PSD and the effect of these drugs. The present study sought to examine this issue. As in males, PSD in females resulted in increased apomorphine-induced stereotypy, decreased pilocarpine-induced chromodacryorrhea, and hyperthermia. Unlike males, however, no apomorphine-induced aggressiveness or apomorphine- and pilocarpine-induced yawning were observed in PSD females. These findings suggest that female sexual hormones may affect the expression of some behaviors and not the neurotransmission as a whole, because drug-induced behaviors in PSD females were partly similar to those observed in PSD males.