Maternal immune activation and repeated maternal separation alter offspring conditioned avoidance response learning and antipsychotic response in male rats.

Previous work shows that repeated administration of several commonly used antipsychotic drugs, such as olanzapine (OLZ) over several days, induces an enhanced disruption of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) (termed antipsychotic sensitization) in normal adolescent and adult rats. However, it is unclear whether the same phenomenon can also be demonstrated in rat models of schizophrenia. The present study investigated OLZ sensitization in a combined maternal immune activation (MIA) and repeated maternal separation (RMS) model of schizophrenia.

Critical Care Transport Time Differences Between Ground, Helicopter VFR, and Helicopter IFR Transports.

In helicopter critical care and emergency medical services (HEMS) transportation, organizations aim for efficiency of the dispatch process. Most HEMS organizations do not provide transport under instrument flight rules (IFR), due to equipment and training cost. Boston MedFlight (BMF) provides IFR HEMS transport.

Behavioral mechanisms underlying the maternal disruptive effect of serotonin 5-HT receptor activation in Sprague-Dawley rats.

Recent evidence indicates that acute activation of 5-HT receptors causes a disruption of maternal behavior in rats. However, the behavioral mechanisms underlying such a disruption are not known. We addressed this issue using two behavioral approaches targeting the maternal motivational and emotional processing systems.

Activation of 5-HT receptor disrupts rat maternal behavior.

Serotonin 5-HT receptor is widely distributed in the central nervous system and plays an important role in sensorimotor function, emotion regulation, motivation, executive control, learning and memory. We investigated its role in rat maternal behavior, a naturalistic behavior encompassing many psychological functions that the 5-HT receptor is involved in. We first showed that activation of 5-HT receptor by TCB-2 (a highly selective 5-HT agonist, 1, 2.

Sex differences in aripiprazole sensitization from adolescence to adulthood.

The present study investigated the potential sex differences in repeated aripiprazole (ARI) treatment-induced behavioral sensitization from adolescence to adulthood, and to determine whether ARI sensitization can be transferred to olanzapine (OLZ) and/or clozapine (CLZ) using the conditioned avoidance response (CAR) and phencyclidine-induced (PCP) hyperlocomotion tests of antipsychotic activity. Male and female Sprague-Dawley adolescence rats (P46) were first treated with ARI (10mg/kg) for 5 consecutive days (P46-50) and tested for avoidance response and ARI-induced inhibition of PCP-induced hyperlocomotion. After they became adults (>P68), rats were challenged with ARI (1.

Behavioral, pharmacological and neuroanatomical analysis of serotonin 2C receptor agonism on maternal behavior in rats.

As a highly motivated social behavior, maternal behavior in rats has been routinely used to study psychoactive drugs for clinical, neuroscience and pharmacological purposes. Recent evidence indicates that acute activation of serotonin 2C (5-HT) receptors causes a disruption of rat maternal behavior. The present study was designed to elucidate the behavioral, pharmacological mechanisms and neuroanatomical basis of this 5-HT effect.

Effects of repeated quetiapine treatment on conditioned avoidance responding in rats.

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance-disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous).

Repeated effects of the neurotensin receptor agonist PD149163 in three animal tests of antipsychotic activity: assessing for tolerance and cross-tolerance to clozapine.

Neurotensin is an endogenous neuropeptide closely associated with the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and shown to possess antipsychotic-like effects. In particular, acute neurotensin receptor activation can inhibit conditioned avoidance response (CAR), attenuate phencyclidine (PCP)-induced prepulse inhibition (PPI) disruptions, and reverse PCP-induced hyperlocomotion. However, few studies have examined the long term effects of repeated neurotensin receptor activation and results are inconsistent.