Comparative effects of tranquilizers and nootropes on the elaboration and functional impairment of the avoidance response

Experiments with rats show that pyracetam, phenazepam, and gidazepam accelerate the development of an avoidance response and diminish its functional impairment through unexpected exposure to electric current applied notwithstanding the relations established between stimuli, the response, and its sequelae. The drugs under study increase the reproducibility of avoidance responses in the rats after the indicated procedure, by preventing or diminishing the increase in intersignal reactions, i.e., exerted equivalent effects despite differences in the pharmacological spectra of the drugs. The results of this study show that the substances used affect emotional tension but do so by different mechanisms. Thus, the tranquilizers decrease emotional tension by acting on the emotional sphere directly, whereas pyracetam decreases it in an indirect way, by activating cognitive and mnestic processes. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 122, No. 8, pp. 152–155, August, 1996