Behavioural and electroencephalographic effects of systemic injections of 8-OH-DPAT in the pigeon (Columba livia)

The effects of systemic injections of the 5HT1A receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT on the spontaneous ingestive, maintenance, locomotor and sleep-like behaviours, and the sleep/waking-related hippocampal electrographic activity were investigated in pigeons. 8-OH-DPAT (0.06, 0.2, 0.6 or 2.0 mg/kg) was found to dose-dependently reduce food and water intake, acutely (in the first 3 h) and 24 h after treatment, during both low-activity morning hours (starting at 10:00 h) and high-activity evening hours (starting at 14:00 h). Automated 24 h records of food and water intake indicated that hypophagic effects can last up to 18 h after injection. Duration and incidence of sleep-like postures increased at all doses, in both morning and afternoon. These effects were associated with decreases in exploratory and preening activities. The 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypnogenic, hypophagic and hypodipsic effects tended to be more intense in the morning than in the afternoon-trials. Pretreatment with WAY 100635 (a 5-HT1A antagonist; 0.6 mg/kg) eliminated all of these 8-OH-DPAT-induced effects. WAY 100635 failed to affect feeding when injected alone, but decreased frequency of sleep-like responses and increased the latency to the first sleep-like episode. Hippocampal EEG tracings after 8-OH-DPAT injections (0.6 or 2.0 mg/kg) indicated that the hypnogenic effects are associated with a specific increase in the frequency and duration of slow wave sleep. Power density analysis of the hippocampal EEG failed to show differences between 8-OH-DPAT-induced sleep and the sleep occurring after vehicle injections, indicating that it may be electrographically similar to diurnal sleep episodes in the pigeon. These data suggest that while 5-HT1a receptor-mediated mechanisms play crucial roles in ingestive and sleep/waking behaviours in mammals and birds, their action upon these states shows substantial inter-taxon variance.