Partial agonism at the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor improves attention, impulsive action and vigilance in low attentive rats.

Inattention is a disabling symptom in conditions such as schizophrenia and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nicotine can improve attention and vigilance, but is unsuitable for clinical use due to abuse liability. Genetic knockout of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) induces attention deficits therefore selective agonism may improve attention, without the abuse liability associated with nicotine.

Assessment of disease-related cognitive impairments using the novel object recognition (NOR) task in rodents.

The novel object recognition test (NOR) test is a two trial cognitive paradigm that assesses recognition memory. Recognition memory is disturbed in a range of human disorders and NOR is widely used in rodents for investigating deficits in a variety of animal models of human conditions where cognition is impaired. It possesses several advantages over more complex tasks that involve lengthy training procedures and/or food or water deprivation.

The involvement of distraction in memory deficits induced by NMDAR antagonism: relevance to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Recognition memory, impaired in neuropsychiatric conditions and currently untreated, may be assessed by the novel object recognition (NOR) task with robust impairments induced by sub-chronic treatment with the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist phencyclidine (PCP). The aim of the present study was to investigate how sub-chronic PCP produces its effects in this task. Forty adult female rats received vehicle or PCP (2mg/kg i.