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Nimodipine Improves Learning and Sensorimotor Behaviors in Aging Mammals

  • Chapter
Treatment of Dementias

Part of the book series: Advances in Behavioral Biology ((ABBI,volume 40))

Abstract

Two troubling concomitants of aging for many individuals are a reduction in sensorimotor capacity and an impairment of learning and memory, which often occur even in “normal” aging. An important common factor associated with both age-related physiological deficits and with learning and memory deficits is the perturbation of calcium metabolism in neurons and other cells throughout the body (Khachaturian, 1984; Landfield, 1987). We have used nimodipine, a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, to modulate calcium action in aging rabbits, and have observed marked facilitation of associative learning (Deyo et al., 1989a) and alterations in open field behaviors, interpretable as an improvement of sensorimotor responsivity (Deyo et al., 1989b). In our experiments, aging rabbits given nimodipine behave more like young controls than their age-matched cohort group. Studies using other species and behavioral tasks also indicate that nimodipine facilitates learning tasks and sensorimotor tests which may have good face validity when generalized to humans. In general, learning tasks used are mediated by hippocampus, a structure known to be especially affected by Alzheimer’s disease (Van Hoesen and Damasio, 1987) as well as by aging (Geinisman et al., 1986; Barnes, 1988).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell, Molecular, and Structural Biology, Northwestern University Medical School, 303 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    John F. Disterhoft & Lucien T. Thompson

  2. Dept. of Psychology, Winona State University, Winona, MN, 55987, USA

    Richard A. Deyo

Authors
  1. John F. Disterhoft
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  2. Richard A. Deyo
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  3. Lucien T. Thompson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    Edwin M. Meyer , James W. Simpkins  & Fulton T. Crews ,  & 

  2. Taiho Pharmaceutical Company, Tokushima, Japan

    Jyunji Yamamoto

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Disterhoft, J.F., Deyo, R.A., Thompson, L.T. (1992). Nimodipine Improves Learning and Sensorimotor Behaviors in Aging Mammals. In: Meyer, E.M., Simpkins, J.W., Yamamoto, J., Crews, F.T. (eds) Treatment of Dementias. Advances in Behavioral Biology, vol 40. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3432-7_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3432-7_18

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