caa a22 4500 469119853 CHVBK 20180323133135.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e19920701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF02245302 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF02245302 Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists decrease distractibility in aged monkeys performing the delayed response task [Elektronische Daten] [A. Arnsten, T. Contant] With advancing age, monkeys become impaired on a test of spatial working memory, the delayed response task, and show increased susceptibility to interference from irrelevant stimuli (Bartus and Dean 1979). Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists such as clonidine and guanfacine have been shown to improve the delayed response performance of aged monkeys under standard testing conditions (e.g. Arnsten et al. 1988). The current study examined whether these drugs could protect the delayed response performance of aged monkeys when irrelevant stimuli were presented during the delay intervals. Aged monkeys were tested on the variable delayed response task with short delays to minimize memory demands and optimize performance on control (no interference) sessions. During interference sessions, distractors were presented during the delays on 9 of the 30 trials ("distractor” trials). If the aged monkeys had been pretreated with saline, performance was significantly disrupted by the irrelevant stimuli compared to matched saline control sessions. This impairment was not only evident on the 9 distractor trials, but on the 21 remaining "non-distractor” trials as well. However, if the aged monkeys had been pretreated with clonidine or guanfacine, performance was not impaired on the interference sessions. This beneficial effect of the alpha-2 agonists was most apparent on the nondistractor trials. Guanfacine was able to decrease the harmful effects of distraction without any apparent sedative side effects. Co-administration of the alpha-2 antagonists idazoxan or SKF104078 with clonidine blocked the protective effects of the agonist on delayed response performance, consistent with actions at alpha-2 adrenergic receptors. These findings suggest that alpha-2 agonists improve delayed response performance, at least in part, by helping to protect memory from irrelevant stimulation. Clonidine is already used in the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder, and the current data suggest that guanfacine may also be useful in this regard. Springer-Verlag, 1992 Clonidine nationallicence Guanfacine nationallicence SKF104078 nationallicence Attention nationallicence Memory nationallicence Prefrontal cortex nationallicence Arnsten A. Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, 06510-8001, New Haven, CT, USA aut Contant T. Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, 06510-8001, New Haven, CT, USA aut Psychopharmacology Springer-Verlag 108/1-2(1992-07-01), 159-169 0033-3158 108:1-2<159 1992 108 213 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02245302 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02245302 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Arnsten A. Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, 06510-8001, New Haven, CT, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Contant T. Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, 06510-8001, New Haven, CT, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Psychopharmacology Springer-Verlag 108/1-2(1992-07-01), 159-169 0033-3158 108:1-2<159 1992 108 213 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer