Early Behavioural Effects of Intraventricular Administration of 6-Hydroxydopamine in Rat

WHEN administered centrally, 6-hydroxydopamine causes a long lasting if not permanent depletion of catecholamines in brain^{1, 2}. When administered alone, the drug seems to be more potent in depleting noradrenaline than dopamine, but in the presence of a monoamine oxidase inhibitor there is also substantial depletion of dopamine^{2, 3}. In some preliminary behavioural experiments we observed that in the presence of the monoamine oxidase inhibitor pargyline, there seemd to be a period of increased locomotor activity shortly after intraventricular administration of 6-hydroxydopamine. We have now investigated this phenomenon more rigorously.