No increase in reaction-time after lesion of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle

In this study we examined whether lesions of rats' dorsal noradrenergic bundles affect their reaction times to temporally unpredictable stimuli. Injection of 6-hydroxydopamine into rats' dorsal bundles drastically reduced the noradrenaline content of their cerebral cortex. Nevertheless, 6OHDA treated rats could still react as quickly as controls. Moreover, the treatment did not affect the efficiency with which rats performed the task, even when they were forced to respond very quickly.