Differential recovery in measures of exploration/locomotion after single dosage of reserpine in the rat

Abstract

Different aspects of exploration/locomotion were studied in rats injected with reserpine (4 mg/kg i.p.) once and in vehicle injected yoked controls. Fifteen different parameters were measured on 7 sessions - on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 11th, 15th and 21st postinjectiorn day. The difference scores (the value obtained from the control animal minus the corresponding value from the yoked reserpinized animal) were subjected to nonparametric analysis of variance across sessions. Of the 15 parameters only 6 revealed significant differences between sessions. Furthermore, for those six parameters which exhibited significant differences between sessions the recovery patterns revealed by differences between sessions were dissimilar. It is concluded that what is usually referred to as exploratianflocomotion must be considered apparatus- and procedure-specific and that the measures obtained in different studies should only be compared when identical procedures have been employed. In addition to the measures of exploration/locomotion the rats were subjected to a parallel series of active avoidance sessions in a shuttle-box. Comparing the reserpinized rats impaired active-avoidance aquisiticm to the recovery patterns in the exploratiodlocomotion tests, it can be tentatively concluded that the lack of recovery in the active-avoidance test is not solely due to impaired motoric abilities.