Ontogeny of cholinergic mediation of behaviors in the rat.

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Abstract
In a series of 6 experiments, cholinergic mediation of behavior was studied in immature rats. Although scopolamine disrupted discriminative choice behavior in both 15- and 23-day-old rat pups, it increased latency to choice in 15-day-olds and decreased latency to choice in 23-day-olds. This disruption of discriminated choice behavior was not due to differential shock thresholds or differences in locomotor activity between drug-treated and control animals, nor was it specific to a T-maze shock-escape discrimination task. Central cholinergic mediation of different behaviors may mature at different rates.