Abstract
Two groups of neonatal rats were administered 6-hydroxydopamine to study the effects of catecholamine depletion on adult behavior. At about 6 weeks of age, the animals began training on a simple brightness discrimination task. They were subsequently tested for activity and reactivity in a Hebb-Williams maze and trained in a two-way active avoidance task. After sacrifice, brain assays indicated a substantial reduction in norepinephrine, but not dopamine, level. There were no statistical differences between 6-OH-DA-treated and control animals in the acquisition or final performance of the discrimination problem, nor were there differences between the groups on mean activity or reactivity scores. Performance in an active avoidance task also did not differentiate between treated and control rats.
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Isaacson, R.L., Street, W.J., Petit, T.L. et al. Neonatal treatment with 6-OH-DA affects brain NE content but not behavior. Psychobiology 5, 49–52 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335297
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335297