Investigating the inhibitory effect of reserpine on locomotor activity in mice, and its reversal by laevo-DOPA (L-DOPA).

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Method:

Experiment 1

Investigating the inhibitory effect of reserpine on locomotor activity in mice, and its reversal by laevo-DOPA (L-DOPA).

A        Control Mouse

B        Reserpine (4mg/kg) treated mouse.  Test made 2-hours after administration.

C        Reserpine (4mg/kg) treated mouse.  Test made 3-hours after administration.

Note that reserpine induces catalepsy, and the mouse made very few revolutions of the wheel and so I minute recording was not shown

D        L-DOPA (500mg/kg) treated mouse.  Test made 2-hours after administration.

E        Reserpine (4mg/kg) followed by L-DOPA (500mg/kg).  Test made 3-hours after reserpine administration.

Experiment 2

Investigating the behavioural effects of amphetamines and chloropromazine in rats.

An open field test was conducted with the number of squares the rat enters being used as a measure of their motor activity. A series of tests were conducted under varying conditions, with each test lasting one minute.

A        Control rat

B        D-amphetamine (2mg/kg) treated rat.  Test made 75 mins after administration

C        D-amphetamine (2mg/kg) treated rat.  Test made 100 mins after administration.  30 second recording with the result doubled

D        Rat treated with D-amphetamine (2mg/kg) plus Chlorpromazine (0.5mg/kg). Test made 100 mins after administration

E        Chlorpromazine (0.5mg/kg) treated rat.  Test made 100 mins after administration

Results:

Effect of drugs on mouse movement

Table 1: showing the number of revolutions performed by each mouse

Graph 1: showing the mean number of revolutions performed by each mouse

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The graph shows that the administration of reserpine causes a large decrease in the mean number of revolutions performed by the mouse. The control mouse (A) performed an average of 45.20 revolutions, but the mouse that was tested 2 hours after reserpine administration (B) only performed an average of 19.20 revolutions, which is a marked reduction. The mean number of revolutions performed by the mouse tested 3 hours after administration (C) was 5.20, which is an even greater reduction in comparison to the control mouse (A). The mouse that received L-DOPA performed an average of 52.4 revolutions, which ...

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