Blockade of 5-HT1A receptors compensates loss of hippocampal cholinergic neurotransmission involved in working memory of rats

NAN-190, a selective 5-HT1A receptor antagonist, had no effect on the number of errors (attempts to pass through two incorrect panels of the three panel-gates at four choice points) in the working memory task with a three-panel runway setup, when injected bilaterally at 0.32 or 1.0 mu g/side into the dorsal hippocampus. Intrahippocampal administration of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine at 3.2 mu g/side or the competitive NMDA receptor antagonist (+)-3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonic acid (CPP) at 32 ng/side significantly increased the number of working memory errors. The increase in working memory errors induced by intrahippocampal scopolamine (3.2 mu g/side) was reduced by concurrent infusion of 0.32 and 1.0 mu g/side NAN-190, an effect that reached significance only for the 1.0 mu g/side dose. In contrast, NAN-190 at 1.0 mu g/side did not affect the increase in working memory errors when infused intrahippocampally together with 32 ng/side CPP. These results suggest that blockade of hippocampal 5-HT1A receptors does not affect impairment of working memory resulting from block of NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission, but that it can compensate deficiency of septohippocampal cholinergic activity involved in working memory performance of rats.