Central administration of arginine vasotocin: Effects on exploratory behavior in the rat

Abstract

Synthetic arginine vasotocin (AVT) was infused into rat brains either by intraventricular administration or by local infusion on the pineal body. Subsequently, exploratory behavior was analyzed in a hole board. The behavioral effects induced by this peptide were dependent on the time of day, i. e. the light or the dark phase. High intraventricular doses (0.4 microgram) administered during the light phase altered exploratory activity such that the number of hole visits was increased, while the duration of each visit was decreased; lower doses produced no effect. In contrast, during the dark phase peripineal infusion of AVT (10(-4) pg) attenuated the number of hole visits and increased the mean duration of the visits. The strongest effects were obtained with peripineal applications during the dark phase. This treatment also resulted in significantly lowered levels of pineal melatonin.

Neotic preferences in laboratory rodents: Issues, assessment and substrates

“…This is reinforced by reports of changes in neotic preferences in rats and mice following treatment with drugs that are less closely associated with the neural and transmitter systems discussed above. For example, neotic preferences can be affected by lithium (Kurz and Levitsky, 1983;Syme and Syme, 1974), arginine vasotocin (King et al, 1982), CGS 15943A (Griebel et al, 1991), cholecystokinin (Crawley, 1984) and melatonin (Kopp et al, 1999). However, significant progress in clarifying the specific role of different brain areas and transmitters and how they interact with each other would inevitably follow a more noticeable move away from the rather gross neurobiological and pharmacological procedures that have characterized much of the earlier research.…”

Long‐term oral administration of melatonin improves spatial learning and memory and protects against cholinergic degeneration in middle‐aged Ts65Dn mice, a model of Down syndrome

“…In contrast, treatment with melatonin increased the number of hole board explorations in both TS and CO mice. Because exogenous melatonin administration induces arginine vasotocin–like effects affecting exploratory activity , it is possible that this mechanism mediates the enhanced exploratory activity found in TS mice following melatonin administration.…”