Scopolamine impairs spatial maze performance in rats

Male Wistar rats given repeated daily injections of scopolamine (0.3 mg/kg), or isotonic saline, over a 15 day acquisition period were trained in an 8-arm radial maze using a confinement procedure to reduce the likelihood that animals would resort to non-spatial strategies to solve the maze.

Abstract

Male Wistar rats given repeated daily injections of scopolamine (0.3 mg/kg), or isotonic saline, over a 15 day acquisition period were trained in an 8-arm radial maze using a confinement procedure in which the animal was detained in the centre of the maze for 10 sec between each arm choice. Confinement was used to reduce the likelihood that animals would resort to non-spatial strategies to solve the maze. All scopolamine treated animals failed to learn over the 15 day period, since their performance never exceeded that of saline treated animals early in learning. On two days when treatments were reversed, the animals which had previously received scopolamine improved performance significantly, and those which had been given saline were impaired under scopolamine treatment.