[A special case of learning disruption as a model of a disintegration phenomenon].

Combination of two factors in rats such as the isolation (during 2-4 months, beginning from the 21st day of age) and procedure of space cyclic learning results in a rare kind of behavioral strategy (in 30% animals), when the cyclic behavior is realized without food reinforcement. Such a dissociation between the vital motivation and searching behavior may be considered as an analogue of the disintegration phenomenon in neuropsychotic patients. The deep depression of learning owing to lowering of search represents the dominant type of behavioral disorders in isolants. The cyclic habit training, including a 2-months pause between two sessions, significantly increases behavioral search activity. The behaviors are accompanied by morphological shifts in the sensomotor cortex: significant decrease of the fifth layer (giant pyramids) thickness, selective lowering in the satellite glia density and elimination of normal behavior-glia correlations.

[Unilateral injury of sensorimotor cortex of the dominant or subdominant hemispheres of rats-mothers and emotional behavior of their offsprings in the "open field"]. / Unilateral'noe povrezhdenie sensomotornoi kory dominantnogo i subdominantnogo polusharii mozga krys-materei i povedenie potomstva v "otkrytom pole".

Neurohumoral disorders in mothers caused by brain injury, infection, hypoxia, and other pathological factors result in motor and psychoemotional disorders in children. Emotional behavior of 30-day-old offsprings of female rats with unilateral sensorimotor brain injury was studied in the "open field". Individual behavior was estimated (the probability of certain acts and significant transfers between them). Behavioral disorders in rat offsprings depended on the side (left of right) of mother's brain injury and "handedness". The right-side mother's injury turned to be more deleterious. Behavioral alterations were stronger in offsprings of ambidextral and left-handed females than in those born by right-handed males with the same sensorimotor injury.

[Behavioral consequences of isolation in early ontogeny in rats: selectivity of anxiety conditions]. / Povedencheskie posledstviia izoliatsii v rannem ontogeneze u krys: selektivnost' trevozhnykh sostoianii.

Multiparameter scale for evaluation of anxiety-phobic state in rats reveals significant enhancement of anxiety in rat pups after 6-week isolation (beginning from the 21st day from birth) as compared to grouped controls of the same litter: the locomotion and exploration that appear in test areas are suppressed, and species-specific fear reactions are enhanced. These changes considered as signs of situational anxiety are not eliminated by 2.5-month keeping in groups. Nevertheless, they are not correlated with parameters of the acoustic startle reflex that (by the data of literature) is thought to be related with fear and anxiety. On the basis of the discrepancy it is proposed that state of anxiety is selective. This suggestion is confirmed by individual behavioral variations characterized by a combination of a low level of situational anxiety and a high level of acoustic anxiety observed in both experimental and control groups. These variations may explain the existence of atypical "emotional resonance"-like behavior according to P.V. Simonov. Attention is given to selectively enhanced acoustic startle reflex in the group of active control as an evidence for critical importance of any manipulations with social context in early ontogeny.

The influence of the new benzodiazepine derivative BD-1158 on the behaviour of rabbits in spontaneous conditions.

BD-1158 is a new 1,4 benzodiazepine derivative. The purpose of the present experiments was to test the spontaneous behaviour (typical of a rabbit) after administration of BD-1158 and thus to define the activity and side effects of this substance under physiological conditions. The experiments were performed for 3 subsequent days in a group of 10 rabbits. On the first day spontaneous behaviour was tested. On the second day 1 ml of 1% starch solution was administered intraperitoneally. On the third day BD-1158 was administered intraperitoneally at a dose 10 mg/kg diluted in 1% starch solution up to 1 ml, 35-40 minutes before the beginning of the experiment. Six phases of behaviour were estimated. It was concluded that BD-1158 has a strong anxiolytic and sedative effect, decreases the state of animal's attention, water and food uptake.

[The anxiolytic action of an analog of the endogenous peptide tuftsin on inbred mice with different phenotypes of the emotional stress reaction]. / Izuchenie protivotrevozhnogo deistviia analoga éndogennogo peptida taftsina na inbrednykh myshakh s razlichnym fenotipom émotsional'no-stressovoi reaktsii.

The anxiolytic effect of the synthetic analogue of the endogenous peptide tuftsin (Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro) was studied in inbred mice Balb/c (C) and C57B1/6 (B6) with different heritable types of emotional-stress reaction. In C strain with genetically high level of anxiety and "passive" type of behaviour under conditions of avoidable and unavoidable stress (open field, elevated plus-maze, light-dark chamber) the heptapeptide prevented manifestations of anxiety being administered intraperitoneally in a wide range of active doses (200-3000 mcg/kg). The drug did not change the behaviour of B6 mice with low level of anxiety and active type of emotional-stress reaction. The described effect is comparable with tranquilizing-activatory action of low doses of benzodiazepine tranquillizers, however, in contrast to the latter, the heptapeptide has no side inhibitory behavioural effects even in high doses. The heptapeptide may be considered as a promising new anxioselective drug without side inhibitory behavioural effects which are typical for benzodiazepine tranquillizers.