Petrillo M, Ritter C A, Powers A S
Department of Psychology, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY 11439.
Physiol Behav. 1994 Jul;56(1):135-41. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(94)90271-2.
The present research was undertaken to determine whether acetylcholine plays a role in memory for a maze in turtles. Cholinergic cells have been observed in the basal forebrain of turtles, and the basal forebrain of turtles projects to the dorsal cortex, a region that has been implicated in associative function. In Experiment 1, turtles were trained on an X-maze for water reward and then given lesions of the dorsal cortex or basal forebrain or sham lesions and retested postoperatively on the maze. Both dorsal cortex and basal forebrain lesions impaired performance on the maze. In Experiment 2, turtles were trained on the maze and then given saline, scopolamine, or methylscopolamine on a 1-day retention test. Scopolamine in the higher doses impaired maze performance on the test day, but methylscopolamine did not. The highest dose of scopolamine had no effect on measures of general activity, showing that the effects of the drug were specific to the learned task.
本研究旨在确定乙酰胆碱在乌龟迷宫记忆中是否起作用。已在乌龟的基底前脑观察到胆碱能细胞，且乌龟的基底前脑投射至背侧皮质，该区域与联想功能有关。在实验1中，训练乌龟在X型迷宫中获取水奖励，然后对其进行背侧皮质或基底前脑损伤或假损伤，术后在迷宫上重新测试。背侧皮质和基底前脑损伤均损害了在迷宫上的表现。在实验2中，训练乌龟走迷宫，然后在1天的保持测试中给它们注射生理盐水、东莨菪碱或甲基东莨菪碱。较高剂量的东莨菪碱在测试当天损害了迷宫表现，但甲基东莨菪碱没有。最高剂量的东莨菪碱对一般活动指标没有影响，表明该药物的作用对所学任务具有特异性。
