Noradrenaline in the brain: progress in theories of behavioural function

Alleviation of response suppression to conditioned aversive stimuli by lesions of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle

Rats with neurotoxic lesions of the dorsal ascending noradrenergic bundle (DB) were compared with sham-operated (SH) controls on the acquisition, steady state and extinction of response suppression maintained by a classical (conditioned suppression) or an instrumental (discriminated punishment) contingency. DB lesions interfered neither with the acquisition of the reference response of sucrose-rewarded barpressing nor with unconditioned responding to the overhead flashing light subsequently used as a signal of shock. The acquisition of discriminated response suppression was also unaffected by the lesion under both types of contingency. However, once discriminated suppression had stabilized, both the conditioned and the discriminative stimulus used were significantly less effective in maintaining suppression in DB animals than in SH controls provided that low intensity footshock (0.2 mA) was used as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Upon increase of UCS intensity (to 0.5 mA) normal suppression was observed in the DB group under both contingencies. Extinction of the classical contingency reinstated the difference between DB and SH performance: DB lesion resulted in significantly faster extinction of fear. In contrast, extinction of the discriminated punishment contingency was unaffected by the lesion, although generalized response suppression dissipated faster in the DB than in the SH animals trained under this condition. Our results offer no support for the reinforcement hypothesis of DB function (normal acquisition of barpressing and of discriminated suppression of barpressing); mixed support (greater initial generalization of suppression in DB animals) and contradiction (more rapid extinction of conditioned suppression in DB animals) for the attentional hypothesis; and weak support (reduced suppression and more rapid extinction of suppression in DB animals, but only within limited experimental parameters) for the anxiety hypothesis of DB function. Hence none of the extant theories of DB function offer a ready explanation of the pattern of results presented here. A simple interpretation which conforms with the sparsity of positive behavioural findings in the literature on DB lesions is that forebrain noradrenaline contributes to the detection and utilization of conditioned stimuli; but that this contribution is critical only for the detection of stimuli with low associative strength.

Impaired noradrenergic transmission in schizophrenia?

Recently, increased brain and spinal fluid (CSF) norepinephrine (NE), and a decreased cAMP response to prostaglandin E1 (PgE1) stimulation of platelet NE sensitive adenylcyclase were observed in some schizophrenic patients. Low CSF dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) activity was related to brain atrophy, whereas high plasma DBH was associated with tardive dyskinesia. Increased NE (in brain and CSF) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenylglycol (MHPG) levels and decreased plasma DBH activity in the brain were associated with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Impaired NE transmission in schizophrenia may relate to disturbances in the autonomic nervous system, deficits in attention and information processing and to an impaired ability to deal with stress. Although pharmacological studies have suggested a major role for dopamine (DA) in schizophrenic psychosis, this review indicates the need for further exploration of the NE system. Future studies should address the relationship with DA, the autonomic nervous system (ANS), cerebral blood flow, brain metabolism, stress response, negative and prodromal symptoms.

Norepinephrine metabolism in man using deuterium labelling: origin of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymandelic acid

A double isotope labelling technique was used to simultaneously determine the in vivo turnover rates of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglycol (HMPG) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymandelic acid (HMMA, VMA) and the rate of HMPG oxidation to HMMA. Six healthy men were given intravenous injections of [2H3]HMPG and [2H6]HMMA and their plasma and urine samples analysed by gas chromatography--mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for the protium and deuterium species. HMPG and HMMA production rates were calculated by isotope dilution. The rate of HMPG oxidation to HMMA was obtained from the fraction of [2H3]HMPG recovered as [2H3]HMMA. The results showed that the entire production of HMMA, 1.11 +/- 0.21 mumol/h (mean +/- SE), could be accounted for by oxidation of HMPG, 1.49 +/- 0.31 mumol/h. In another experiment designed to avoid expansion of the HMPG body pool, a tracer dose of [14C]HMPG was given to the same subjects. The levels of [14C]HMPG and [14C]HMMA were measured in urine after extraction and separation by thin layer chromatography. Urinary excretion of endogenous HMPG and HMMA was determined by GC/MS. The results showed that the endogenous HMMA fraction of the total HMPG and HMMA urinary excretion rate, 0.57 +/- 0.04, was the same as the fraction of [14C]HMPG oxidized to [14C]HMMA, 0.62 +/- 0.01. Thus, HMPG is the main intermediate in the metabolic conversion of norepinephrine and epinephrine to HMMA in man.

Dorsal bundle lesions do not affect latent inhibition of conditioned suppression

Three experiments are reported which examine the effects of lesions of the dorsal ascending noradrenergic bundle (DB) on latent inhibition using a conditioned suppression procedure in rats. In none of the experiments did the DB lesion have any effect, despite changes in the extent of latent inhibition and in the control procedures used to assess it. The results are discussed in relation to the attentional theory of DB function.

Brain noradrenaline and anaesthesia: behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

Neonatal administration of 6-hydroxydopamine to rat pups was used to deplete brain noradrenaline in the locus coeruleus projection system to less than 5% of normal and the response to barbiturate and non-barbiturate anaesthetics examined. The sleeping time in response to administration of thiopentone, pentobarbitone, methohexitone or hexobarbitone was markedly increased in 6-hydroxydopamine-treated rats, as it was for the non-barbiturates chloral hydrate and diisopropylphenol. The sleeping time for other non-barbiturates such as althesin, ketamine and ethyl carbamate (urethane) was not affected in noradrenaline-depleted rats. Similarly, an index of the evoked potential, recorded in the primary somatosensory cortex to supramaximal electrical stimulation of the forepaw, decreased more markedly with increasing doses of thiopentone in 6-hydroxydopamine-treated rats than in controls. Potentiation of the effect of diisopropylphenol on the evoked cortical response was also seen in noradrenaline-depleted rats while the effect of althesin did not differ. It is suggested that brain noradrenaline pathways originating from the locus coeruleus may play an important role in the duration and depth of anaesthesia resulting from barbiturate and some related agents.

The neurochemistry and pharmacology of extinction behavior

The role of various neurotransmitter systems in the brain in extinction behavior is examined. An attempt is made to suggest psychological mechanisms (such as attention, secondary reinforcement or internal inhibition) by which the neurotransmitter systems or drugs act to produce the observed alteration in extinction behavior. The putative neurotransmitters acetylcholine, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and the peptides are reviewed, as are pharmacological agents such as the benzodiazepines, the barbiturates, the psychodelics, the neuroleptics, the psychomotor stimulants and cannabinoids. Other treatments and factors are considered such as peripheral hormones and the adrenal-pituitary axis. It is suggested that the noradrenergic system may be involved in the expression of extinction behavior by a role in selective attention, the dopamine system via an involvement with secondary reinforcement, the cholinergic system by a mechanism of response inhibition and the barbiturates and benzodiazepines by a block of nonreward.

Anaesthesia: the role of adrenergic mechanisms

The beta-blocker propranolol administered intraperitoneally to rats prior to the barbiturate anaesthetic thiopentone caused a dose-dependent increase in anaesthesia duration. Sotalol, which only poorly crosses the blood-brain barrier, had no such effect, implying a central site of action. The selective beta 1-blockers, metoprolol and atenolol, did not alter thiopentone anaesthesia duration; implying that the effect of propranolol was mediated by a beta 2-receptor. The selective alpha 1-blocker prazocin increased thiopentone anaesthesia duration, while the alpha 1-agonist ST 587 decreased it. Since the alpha 1-agonist methoxamine, which only poorly crosses the blood-brain barrier, was ineffective, a central site of action is indicated. The alpha 2-agonist clonidine markedly increased thiopentone-anaesthesia duration, while the alpha 2-blocker yohimbine, shortened the duration. These effects were shown to be noradrenergic since they were blocked by prior depletion of brain noradrenaline using 6-hydroxydopamine. A model is proposed in which drug-induced alterations in the firing of locus coeruleus cells, or drug-induced changes in the postsynaptic effect of released noradrenaline, may be responsible for modulation of cortical arousal, wakefulness and the processing of sensory stimuli; thus affecting the duration of barbiturate anaesthesia.

Latent inhibition following systemic DSP4: effects due to presence and absence of contextual cues in taste-aversion learning

Three taste-aversion experiments were performed to test the effect of noradrenaline (NA) depletion, following systemic administration of N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine (DSP4), upon the Lubow "latent inhibition" effect in rats. DSP4-treated rats did not demonstrate any attenuation of latent inhibition, the conditioned stimulus (CS) preexposure effect. Instead, when the contextual conditions (provided by a noise-producing bottle) were so arranged that there was a "mismatch" from the saccharin preexposure to the saccharin-aversion conditioning phase, the DSP4 rats showed some considerable enhancement of latent inhibition. This disruption of the contextual control of the degree of latent inhibition evinced by the NA-depleted rats was found to bear a striking resemblance to the attenuated contextual control of extinction in taste aversion by DSP4 treated rats demonstrated earlier. Biochemical analysis of noradrenaline and serotonin accumulation performed after Experiment 1, and postdecapitation reflex analysis after each experiment, confirmed the selective NA depletion. These results are compared to earlier findings concerning noradrenaline and latent inhibition and the effects are discussed with reference to selective attentional and retrieval-based models of noradrenaline function in learning and memory.

Enhancement of learning four weeks after stimulation of the nucleus locus coeruleus in the rat: differential effects of dorsal noradrenergic bundle lesion and lesion of the locus coeruleus proper

In previous studies we showed that electrical stimulation of the nucleus locus coeruleus produced, four weeks later, a significant improvement in performance in acquisition of food-reinforced operant conditioning. In the two experiments reported here, we tested the role of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle and of the locus coeruleus proper in this long-term effect. Lesioning the dorsal noradrenergic bundle did not have a clear and consistent effect, whereas lesion of the nucleus coeruleus proper suppressed almost totally the beneficial effect of the stimulation. In the first experiment, the dorsal noradrenergic bundle was lesioned by local bilateral injection of 6-hydroxydopamine, 8 days before stimulation of the locus coeruleus. Four weeks after the stimulation, the rats were tested for acquisition of the operant task. Three control groups were used: not lesioned but stimulated, lesioned but not stimulated, and not lesioned/not stimulated. The locus coeruleus stimulation produced the same improvement of performance at the beginning of the acquisition, whether or not the dorsal noradrenergic bundle had been lesioned. However, a significant decrement of performance was observed in lesioned and stimulated rats during the last 40 min of the acquisition. In the second experiment, the locus coeruleus proper was destroyed by bilateral local injection of 6-hydroxydopamine and the locus coeruleus region was stimulated 15 days later. Three control groups were used, as in the first experiment. All the rats were tested 4 weeks later for acquisition of the operant task. The locus coeruleus lesion significantly attenuated the beneficial effect of the stimulation; however, the performance of the lesioned and stimulated rats was still significantly superior to that of the lesioned but not stimulated rats. These results suggest that the noradrenergic locus coeruleus system is involved in the long-term effect, but that the rostral projections passing through the dorsal bundle, in front of the lesion, are not critically involved in the observed effect.

The effects of postnatal anoxia on behaviour and on the muscarinic and beta-adrenergic receptors in the hippocampus of the developing rat

Exposure of rats to 25 min anoxia within 24 h following birth caused behavioural as well as biochemical changes during their development and maturity. Following postnatal anoxia, a significant increase in the concentration of the cholinergic muscarinic receptors in the hippocampus was noted at the early stages of development, between 6 and 20 days of age, but reached normal values at 40 days of age. However, at this age, significant increase in the concentration of beta-adrenergic receptors in the hippocampus was found, which remained significantly high during maturity and adulthood, as compared to controls. Rats submitted postnatally to anoxia exhibited hyperactivity in the open field which was maximal at 20-25 days of age and declined towards normal values at 40 days of age. At maturity, between 60 and 80 days of age, these rats showed poor performance in a complex 6-choice discrimination learning but not in simple differential conditioning. Possible correlations between the behavioural and biochemical findings are discussed.