M. Amalric et al., COMPLEX DEFICITS ON REACTION-TIME PERFORMANCE FOLLOWING BILATERAL INTRASTRIATAL 6-OHDA INFUSION IN THE RAT, European journal of neuroscience, 7(5), 1995, pp. 972-980
The present study examined the ability of rats subjected to bilateral
6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the terminal area of the nigrostriatal do
pamine system to perform a prelearned reaction time task. This lesion
model, the induction of a partial dopamine denervation of the striatum
(74% depletion of dopamine striatal tissue content) with a retrograde
degeneration of dopamine cell bodies in the substantia nigra, sparing
the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, closely approximates the neurona
l degeneration observed in human idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Rats
were trained previously to release a lever, within a reaction time lim
it, after the presentation of a visual cue through reinforcement with
food pellets, The onset of the light stimulus varied randomly after an
unpredictable delay period of 0.25-1.0 s, Rats with dopaminergic lesi
ons showed moderate to extensive performance deficits which were not c
ompensated for the five postoperative weeks. More than half of the les
ioned animals (64%) showed severe deficits, characterized by a concomi
tant increase in the number of anticipated (premature release of the l
ever before the visual cue) and delayed responses (lever release after
the reaction time limit) with shortened reaction times in some cases,
A smaller proportion (36%) of lesioned animals exhibited mild impairm
ent of performance with a large increase in delayed responses and leng
thening of reaction times but with no change in the number of anticipa
ted responses. Asymmetric lesions had no effect on the reaction time p
erformance. Examination of tyrosine hydroxylase immunostaining reveale
d that in the most impaired animals dopamine depletion was extensive i
n the medial striatum, whereas it was restricted to the dorsolateral s
triatum in the least impaired animals. Results suggest that a decrease
in dopamine function at striatal level severely disrupts performance
of a conditioned reaction time task. A partial dopamine depletion in t
he dorsolateral striatum induces motor initiation deficits (i.e. incre
ases delayed response only), Larger striatal dopamine depletion may pr
oduce both motor and cognitive deficits (decrease in attentional contr
ol over response output and/or disruption of stimulus-response associa
tions) that could be related to similar events in Parkinson's disease.