Effects of PHA-543613 on the Rodent Anterior Cingulate Cortex: a Study in Rodent Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that has been the subject of constant research in psychology and neuroscience. It has been observed that approximately 80% of the members of the schizophrenic population are regular smokers, that is, they are nicotine users (Drusch et al., 2013), and this trend towards nicotine use is especially prevalent in male subjects (Jiang et al., 2013). This statistic has been linked to nicotine\u27s status as a cognitive enhancing drug. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) has been associated with learning potential in executive function tasks such asset-shifting in subjects with schizophrenia (Pederson et al., 2013). Further, the ACC is rich with alpha-7 nictonic acetylcholinergic receptors. Taken together, the above evidence seems to suggest that the ACC is related to learning capacity, executive function and attentional abilities, and may be a site whereby nicotine may exert cognitive effects in schizophrenics. Thus, the current study directly investigates the effect of nicotine in the ACC. We used the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 to induce a model of schizophrenia in rodents, and then microinfused the nicotinic agonist, PHA-543613directly to the ACC in the experimental group, while other animals received an infusion of saline. Both groups were then tested in an extra dimensional set-shifting task to test attentional and learning capacities after the influence of MK-801. Data collection is currently ongoing