ArticleBehavioural brain research2015
Ventral tegmental area cholinergic mechanisms mediate behavioral responses in the forced swim test.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sertraline and Escitalopram But Not Other Antidepressants Increase Acetylcholinesterase ActivityAnnals of neurosciences · 2026Article
- Article
- mPFC Synaptosome Proteomics Reveals Novel Pathways and Muscarinic Receptor Changes in a Learned Helplessness Mouse Model.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- 1-Nitro-2-Phenylethane as a Multitarget Candidate for Cognitive and Psychiatric Disorders: Insights from In Silico and Behavioral Approaches.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- L-type calcium channel blockade attenuates the anxiogenic-like effects of cocaine abstinence in female and male rats.Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Medial prefrontal cortex acetylcholine signaling mediates the ability to learn an active avoidance response following learned helplessness training.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Dopaminergic and Glutamatergic Mechanisms in Addiction: Assessing the Therapeutic Promise of Memantine and Galantamine for Maintenance Treatment: A Review.Alpha psychiatry · 2024Review
- L-type calcium channel regulation of depression, anxiety and anhedonia-related behavioral phenotypes following chronic stress exposure.Neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- Septohippocampal cholinergic system at the intersection of stress and cognition: Current trends and translational implications.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Review
- Ventral Tegmental Area M5 Muscarinic Receptors Mediate Effort-Choice Responding and Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine in a Sex-Specific Manner .The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2023Article
- Editorial: Understanding perinatal mental health psychiatric impact.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- O-GlcNAcylation in Ventral Tegmental Area Dopaminergic Neurons Regulates Motor Learning and the Response to Natural Reward.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Article
- Encore: Behavioural animal models of stress, depression and mood disorders.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Review
- Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Depressive-Like State and Synaptic Deficits Induced by Hyper-Cholinergic Tone During Chronic Stress in Rats.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2021Article
- Multiple cholinesterase inhibitors have antidepressant-like properties in the mouse forced swim test.Behavioural brain research · 2021Article
- Targeting muscarinic receptors to treat schizophrenia.Behavioural brain research · 2021Review
- Rhythms, Reward, and Blues: Consequences of Circadian Photoperiod on Affective and Reward Circuit Function.Neuroscience · 2021Review
- Converging evidence that short-active photoperiod increases acetylcholine signaling in the hippocampus.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- The cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil has antidepressant-like properties in the mouse forced swim test.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
- Examining the role of muscarinic M5 receptors in VTA cholinergic modulation of depressive-like and anxiety-related behaviors in rats.Neuropharmacology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Recent studies revealed a causal link between ventral tegmental area (VTA) phasic dopamine (DA) activity and pro-depressive and antidepressant-like behavioral responses in rodent models of depression. Cholinergic activity in the VTA has been demonstrated to regulate phasic DA activity, but the role of VTA cholinergic mechanisms in depression-related behavior is unclear. The goal of this study was to determine whether pharmacological manipulation of VTA cholinergic activity altered behavioral responding in the forced swim test (FST) in rats. Here, male Sprague-Dawley rats received systemic or VTA-specific administration of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, physostigmine (systemic; 0.06 or 0.125mg/kg, intra-cranial; 1 or 2μg/side), the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antagonist scopolamine (2.4 or 24μg/side), or the nicotinic AChR antagonist mecamylamine (3 or 30μg/side), prior to the FST test session. In control experiments, locomotor activity was also examined following systemic and intra-cranial administration of cholinergic drugs. Physostigmine administration, either systemically or directly into the VTA, significantly increased immobility time in FST, whereas physostigmine infusion into a dorsal control site did not alter immobility time. In contrast, VTA infusion of either scopolamine or mecamylamine decreased immobility time, consistent with an antidepressant-like effect. Finally, the VTA physostigmine-induced increase in immobility was blocked by co-administration with scopolamine, but unaltered by co-administration with mecamylamine. These data show that enhancing VTA cholinergic tone and blocking VTA AChRs has opposing effects in FST. Together, the findings provide evidence for a role of VTA cholinergic mechanisms in behavioral responses in FST.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.