Effects of nicotine on motor co-ordination and spontaneous activity in mice

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Abstract
Doses of nicotine (0·2 and 0·4 mg/kg subcutaneously) which depress spontaneous activity, improve the ability of mice to remain on a rotating rod, indicating that the reduction in activity is not due to non-specific disruption of motor ability. The performance of rats trained to press a bar for water rewards is stimulated by small subcutaneous doses (0·05, 0·1 mg/kg) of nicotine; larger doses (0·2, 0·4 mg/kg) briefly reduce the rate of bar-pressing before increasing it (Morrison, 1967). The larger doses also depress spontaneous motor activity in mice (Morrison & Armitage, 1967). In the present experiments a rotating rod (Dunham & Miya, 1957) was used to test whether the depresssion of spontaneous activity caused by nicotine is a result of motor incapacity.

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