thioperamide and Cognition-Disorders

Despite the well-described attention and short-term memory enhancing effects of H3 receptor antagonists, and evidence to suggest a close relationship between central histaminergic and cholinergic systems, there is a paucity of evidence for a role for H3 receptor blockade in spatial learning. To address this, we investigated two H3 receptor antagonists in a visual discrimination water maze in rats, and in a Barnes circular maze in mice. Thioperamide and ciproxifan significantly attenuated a scopolamine-induced deficit in the water maze task, while only ciproxifan showed a modest attenuation in the Barnes maze. Taken together, these data suggest a role for H3 receptors in spatial learning that appears to be task-dependent.

Topics: Animals; Cognition Disorders; Discrimination Learning; Escape Reaction; Histamine Antagonists; Imidazoles; Male; Maze Learning; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Models, Animal; Muscarinic Antagonists; Piperidines; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Receptors, Histamine H3; Scopolamine; Spatial Behavior