The effects of methylphenidate and maturation on exploratory activity in rats

Treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with stimulants such as methylphenidate reduces motor activity and improves performance of tasks requiring attention, learning, and memory. The present study reports the patterns of behavioral activity of rats of different ages, and the effect of methylphenidate on the behavioral activity. The behavioral activity of Wistar male rats was measured on the nine hole-board apparatus. In experiment I, the behavioral activity of rats from three age groups (4, 8 and 12 weeks old) were measured in terms of the activity time, specific exploratory behavior, diverse exploratory behavior and defecation number. The rats were re-exposed to the hole-board again every two weeks until they 14 weeks old. The younger rats showed higher activity level compared to the older rats. The activity level decreased as the rats grew older. The younger rats also showed more diverse exploratory behavior, but less specific exploratory behavior compared with the older rats. These suggested that the younger rats may be more hyperactive in nature, and less prone to focus on the specific targets. In experiment II, the methylphenidate (4 mg/kg, i.p.) injected rats showed higher activity level than the controls across the three age groups. The exploratory behavioral patterns were not significantly different among the three age groups. This suggests that the methylphenidate injection raises the motor activity level without affecting the exploratory tendency of rats.