Abstract
Placing rats into a series of novel environments induced vigorous c-fos expression in the infralimbic, anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices, and in the hippocampus. Pretreatment with the antimuscarinic drugs scopolamine and atropine was able to greatly suppress novelty-induced Fos expression at these sites. Placement into the novel environments also induced Fos expression in the habenula and the paraventricular thalamic nucleus, but the response at these sites did not appear to be sensitive to cholinergic blockade. These findings suggest that cholinergic mechanisms play an important role in ability of behavioral events to influence cortical and hippocampal immediate-early gene expression and are consistent with the possibility that some of the effects of anticholinergic drugs on placticity and learning may be mediated through alterations in the expression of these genes.
Publication types
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Comparative Study
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Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Analysis of Variance
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Animals
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Atropine / pharmacology
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Exploratory Behavior / drug effects
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Exploratory Behavior / physiology*
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Gyrus Cinguli / drug effects
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Gyrus Cinguli / metabolism
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Habenula / drug effects
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Habenula / metabolism
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Hippocampus / drug effects
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Hippocampus / metabolism
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Immunohistochemistry
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Male
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Muscarinic Antagonists / pharmacology
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Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus / drug effects
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Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus / metabolism
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Prosencephalon / drug effects
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Prosencephalon / metabolism*
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Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / metabolism*
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Rats
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Rats, Sprague-Dawley
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Receptors, Muscarinic / drug effects
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Receptors, Muscarinic / metabolism*
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Scopolamine / pharmacology
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Signal Transduction / drug effects
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Signal Transduction / physiology
Substances
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Muscarinic Antagonists
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Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos
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Receptors, Muscarinic
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Atropine
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Scopolamine