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Poster Session I
Poster Session I Monday, December 5, 2011 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
1. Psychostimulant Treatment of Age-related Cognitive Decline: Attention Enhancing Effects of Methylphenidate are Reduced in Senescent Rats
Barry D. Waterhouse*, Richard Chu, Jed S. Shumsky, Shevon E. Nicholson
Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA
Background: Background: Methylphenidate (MPH) - Ritalin®, a psychostimulant that blocks reuptake of synaptically released norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, is used clinically to treat a variety of disorders where cognitive function is compromised. The drug is also gaining popularity among healthy individuals for its ability to promote wakefulness, focus attention, and improve concentration. Elderly individuals may be particularly prone to use MPH, but the efficacy of the drug for cognitive enhancement in senescent individuals has not been demonstrated. Studies in our laboratory have focused on the actions of MPH in normal, adult male Sprague Dawley rats (3-6 months old) and have determined that low dose MPH (6.0-8.0 mg/kg oral) enhances performance in a visually-guided sustained attention task (modified from McGaughy and Sarter, 1995) and in an attention set-shifting task (modified from Birrell and Brown, 2000). We hyp
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