The Effects of Anticholinergic Drugs, Chlorpromazine and LSD-25 on Evoked Potentials, EEG and Behaviour

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the effects of anticholinergic drugs, chlorpromazine, and LSD-25 on evoked potentials, electroencephalogram (EEG) and behavior. Anticholinergic drugs administered to animals produce patterns in the EEG of high amplitude, low frequency waves normally associated with sleep; however, these drugs do not produce grossly overt changes in behavior. Wikler as a “pharmacological dissociation between EEG and behavior” described this phenomenon. However, this “dissociation” reported on animal studies has not been substantiated in clinical studies. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to study the effect of three anticholinergic drugs—namely, atropine, hyoscine, and N-methyl-3-piperidyl benzilate—on the EEG and on auditory evoked potentials in cats subjected to different environmental conditions and trained to a conditioned avoidance response. The effects of these drugs have been compared with effects produced by LSD-25 and chlorpromazine.