Intracerebroventricular neuropeptide Y suppresses open field and home cage activity in the rat

Effects of intracerebroventricular administration of neuropeptide Y on open field behaviour, behavioural habituation and corticosterone response to open field testing, and on home cage activity have been investigated in the rat. In the open field, NPY reduced activity in a dose-dependent manner. Behavioural habituation was not influenced. After 5 days of recovery, NPY-treated animals did not differ from non-treated in any of the measured parameters. Peripheral corticosterone levels were not significantly affected, although there was a strong tendency towards an increase. Injection of 2 nmol NPY did not produce any gross neurological deficits. At this dose, NPY greatly suppressed home cage activity. The effect lasted throughout the recording period of 22 h, abolishing the normal circadian variation in activity. After 5 days of recovery, the effect was no longer present. Our interpretation of these findings is, that NPY is a highly potent endogenous agent capable of producing certain important aspects of behavioural sedation in a reversible manner. Since NPY did not decrease the corticosterone response to a novel stimulus, its pattern of actions seems to differ from synthetic sedative drugs.