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Mescaline-induced motor impairment in rats, assessed by two different methods

Elizabeth A. Sykes

Life Sciences September 1, 1986 DOI: 10.1016/0024-3205(86)90196-7 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Experimental study Peer reviewed
Population Laboratory rodents
Intervention Mescaline
Dose 25 mg/kg
Duration 30 and 40 minutes after administration
Topics Mescaline
Keywords Ataxia Motor activity Pharmacology Motor impairment Stimulant Hallucinogen Drug
Citations 10
Key findings Mescaline reduces stride length in a dose-related manner and impairs motor control on a tilt plane at 25 mg/kg during the depressant phase.

Abstract

Motor impairment, especially ataxia, is often mentioned as a 'side effect' of doses of psychoactive drugs which depress animal behaviour; it is difficult to determine it accurately from visual observation, but relatively few attempts have been made to measure it objectively and quantitatively. Mescaline, in moderate to large doses, can induce biphasic--depressant followed by stimulant--effects on learnt and other performance of laboratory rodents. Motor impairment, using three doses, was accordingly measured during the depressant phase by two methods. An 'ataxia' test, involving analyses of footprints, showed few irregularities of gait splay due to mescaline, but the drug markedly reduced the length of steps ('stride') in a dose-related manner. In a 'tilt plane' test for general motor control, the animals' ability to cling to a tilted plane decreased with 25 mg/kg mescaline, at 30 and 40 minutes after administration. Deficits of this kind can be relevant to interpreting drug actions on forms of behaviour which involve movements for responding, and they also have interesting potential in their own right.

Comparable studies

Other preclinical and animal studies on mescaline, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Correlation between the potency of hallucinogens in the mouse head-twitch response assay and their behavioral and subjective effects in other species. C57BL/6J mice 2020 Experimental study with dose-response experiments
Brain mechanisms of hallucinogens and entactogens Humans and rats 2001 Review
Effects of hallucinogenic agents mescaline and phencyclidine on zebrafish behavior and physiology Zebrafish (Danio rerio) 2012 Experimental study
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide- and Mescaline-Induced Attenuation of the Effect of Punishment in the Rat Rats 1976 Experimental study
Dihydrobenzofuran Analogues of Hallucinogens. 3. Models of 4-Substituted (2,5-Dimethoxyphenyl)alkylamine Derivatives with Rigidified Methoxy Groups Rats (trained to discriminate saline from LSD tartrate) and rat cortical and... 1996 In vivo drug discrimination assay and in vitro radioligand binding assay

Citations in the library

Cited by 6

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Cites 3

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