Impaired limbic cortico-striatal structure and sustained visual attention in a rodent model of schizophrenia.
The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology October 31, 2014 Samuel A Barnes, Stephen J Sawiak, Daniele Caprioli et al.
Sub-chronic exposure to the NMDA receptor antagonist phencyclidine (PCP) in rats produced localized reductions in grey matter density in the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, ventral striatum, and amygdala, along with reduced cortical thickness in the insular cortex. PCP-treated rats also showed impaired sustained visual attention on a 5-choice serial reaction time task, especially under higher attentional load, but no significant effect on attentional filtering in an acoustic startle paradigm. These findings indicate that NMDA receptor antagonism can cause brain structural abnormalities in regions implicated in schizophrenia and dissociable attentional deficits.