THE EFFECT OF LEVO-ACETYL-CARNITINE ON VISUAL COGNITIVE EVOKED-POTENTIALS IN THE BEHAVING MONKEY

We studied acute and chronic effects of levo-acetyl-carnitine (LAC) on event-related potentials (ERPs) in 3 monkeys trained in a ''go''/''no -go'' visual ''oddball'' discrimination task. The stimuli were 2.5 cpd sinusoidal gratings differing in their respective orientation only (0 -degrees or 45-degrees). Each monkey was trained to release a lever du ring a prespecified time window. Target stimulus presentation probabil ities were between 0.25 and 0.5. ERPs had comparable mean latencies an d amplitudes in all monkeys. Primary evoked potentials recorded to eit her the target or non-target stimulus did not change significantly as a result of LAC treatment. On the other hand, P300 latency decreased f ollowing LAC administration, with a maximum occurring in 15 20 min. Th e major effects of LAC were consistent within each animal and for all three of them.