Ed. Levin et B. Eisner, NICOTINE INTERACTIONS WITH DOPAMINE AGONISTS - EFFECTS ON WORKING-MEMORY FUNCTION, Drug development research, 31(1), 1994, pp. 32-37
Nicotine has been found to improve memory performance in a variety of
tests including the radial-arm maze. Nicotine may have effects mediate
d by promoting the release of dopamine. The present study was conducte
d to determine the interactions of nicotine with D-1 and D-2 agonists.
Rats were acutely administered nicotine, the D-1 agonist SKF 38393, a
nd D-2/D-3 agonist quinpirole, and nicotine together with each of thes
e agonists. Nicotine significantly improved choice accuracy in the rad
ial-arm maze. The D-1 agonist SKF 38393 significantly impaired choice
accuracy. Nicotine was effective in reversing this effect. The D-2/D-3
agonist quinpirole showed a trend toward potentiating the improvement
in choice accuracy caused by 0.2 mg/kg (0.43 mu mol/kg) of nicotine.
These data show that, as with the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, t
here are significant interactions of dopamine systems with nicotine ef
fects. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.