Abstract
To enable the development of effective treatments for dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it
is important to establish valid animal models of cognitive impairments. Scopolamine is widely used
to induce cognitive deficits in animal models of AD, but also causes non-cognitive side effects. We
assessed whether biperiden, a selective antagonist of M1 muscarinic receptors, which are predominantly
expressed in brain areas involved in cognitive processes, causes cognitive deficits without inducing
peripheral side-effects. Two different doses of biperiden (3 or 10 mg kg−1) on the acquisition of a spatial
cone field task were assessed in male Lister Hooded rats. This task measures, among others, spatial working
(WM) – and reference memory (RM) simultaneously. Biperiden did not impair learning of the task. The
animals reached asymptotic levels for all variables except reference memory and the number of rewards
collected. However, the 10 mg kg−1 dose decreased the tendency of rats to use searching strategies to
solve the task and made them slower to start searching and completing the task. In conclusion, though
no effects on WM and RM performance were seen, the present study cannot conclude that biperiden acts
as a more selective cognition impairer than scopolamine in other rats strains and/or other doses than
those tested.
is important to establish valid animal models of cognitive impairments. Scopolamine is widely used
to induce cognitive deficits in animal models of AD, but also causes non-cognitive side effects. We
assessed whether biperiden, a selective antagonist of M1 muscarinic receptors, which are predominantly
expressed in brain areas involved in cognitive processes, causes cognitive deficits without inducing
peripheral side-effects. Two different doses of biperiden (3 or 10 mg kg−1) on the acquisition of a spatial
cone field task were assessed in male Lister Hooded rats. This task measures, among others, spatial working
(WM) – and reference memory (RM) simultaneously. Biperiden did not impair learning of the task. The
animals reached asymptotic levels for all variables except reference memory and the number of rewards
collected. However, the 10 mg kg−1 dose decreased the tendency of rats to use searching strategies to
solve the task and made them slower to start searching and completing the task. In conclusion, though
no effects on WM and RM performance were seen, the present study cannot conclude that biperiden acts
as a more selective cognition impairer than scopolamine in other rats strains and/or other doses than
those tested.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 307-311 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Behavioural Brain Research |
| Volume | 274 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Working memory
- Reference memory
- Learning
- Biperiden
- Cone field
- Animal model