Long-term scopolamine treatment altered locomotor, exploratory and anxiety-like behaviours of albino rats

Abstract

Abstract Background Animal models are used to provide an adequate investigation of brain-behaviour, physiological and path physiological relationships to give insight into human behaviour and the underlying processes of drugs affecting the nervous system. Scopolamine; SCO (alkaloid l-(2)-scopolamine [l-(2)-hyoscine]) has a competitive inhibitory effect on muscarinic receptors for acetylcholine. Thus, this study was designated to investigate the effect of long-term SCO treatment on locomotor, exploratory and anxiety-like behaviours of rats using open field test. Results The long-term SCO treatment induced a prominent increase in locomotion (hyperactivity) and exploratory behaviour of rats. In addition, anxiety-like behavioural patterns showed a non-significant difference in SCO treated compared to control. Serotonin level was significantly decreased in the scopolamine treated group in comparison with the control group. Conclusions Data suggested that long-term SCO treatment resulted in marked neurobehavioural alterations in a rat as an animal model.

Keywords

• Scopolamine
• Rats
• Serotonin
• Exploratory behaviour
• Locomotion