The effects of scopolamine hydrobromide on one-way and two-way avoidance learning in rats

Abstract

Previous studies have shown certain striking similarities between the behavioral effects produced by some anticholinergic drugs and the effects produced by hippocampal destruction. To investigate this parallel more thoroughly, scopolamine hydrobromide was administered to rats in one-way and two-way active avoidance learning situations. The drugged animals showed improved learning of the two-way problem, reaching criterion in one-half the number of trials and making one-third as many errors as the saline injected controls. In the one-way task the drugged subjects performed slightly worse than control animals. These data correspond very closely to those from similar experiments using hippocampectomized subjects.