Vasopressin analog (DDAVP) facilitates concept learning in human males

doi:10.1016/0196-9781(82)90162-0

Peptides

Volume 3, Issue 4, July–August 1982, Pages 627-630

https://doi.org/10.1016/0196-9781(82)90162-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

The effects of desmopressin acetate (DDAVP) were studied in normal males. Subjects were given 60μg of DDAVP, a placebo, or no treatment and were given several behavioral tests. DDAVP enhanced learning of all problems on a concept shift task but had no effect on visual memory, anxiety, blood pressure or heart rate. It was suggested that DDAVP may influence memory via its actions on attention.

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This review catalogs effects of peptides on various aspects of animal and human behavior as published in the journal Peptides in its first twenty years. Topics covered include: activity levels, addiction behavior, ingestive behaviors, learning and memory-based behaviors, nociceptive behaviors, social and sexual behavior, and stereotyped and other behaviors. There are separate tables for these behaviors and a short introduction for each section.
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Animal research indicated that vasopressin (VP) exerts its principle behavioral influence, the improvement of memory formation, through an action on septo-hippocampal and connected limbic structures. Here human research is reviewed with the notion of a comparable effect of VP in healthy humans. Although the human studies yielded less consistent results than those in rats, they indicate that VP is able to improve declarative memory formation which is the type of memory essentially relying on hippocampal function. The effect appears to center on the encoding process for memory. In examinations of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) VP was consistently found to increase the ‘mismatch negativity’(MMN) and the P3 components which are ERP potentials closely linked to the hippocampal processing of novel, unexpected and salient events. Enhanced processing of these stimulus aspects is considered to precipitate memory encoding. The regulation of voluntary selective attention and arousal do not appear to be primary targets of VP effects in humans. A mediation of effects by peripheral changes can be excluded since the central nervous effects were observed in studies using intranasal VP administration providing a direct access to brain functions.
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The effects of intranasal treatment with DDAVP on healthy, male volunteers was assessed. Subjects were asked to learn prose passages and then were given either 60 μg of DDAVP or saline in a double-blind procedure. Subjects were then asked to recall the passages after a 24-h delay. Treatment had no effect on recall of passages. This suggests that treatment with vasopressin affects acquisition rather than consolidation of newly learned information.
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1992, Peptides
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Vasopressin analog (DDAVP) facilitates concept learning in human males

Abstract

Peptides

Pharmac. Biochem. Behav.

Peptides

Lancet

Physiol. Behav.

Lancet

Lancet

Pharmac. Biochem. Behav.

Lancet

Peptides

Physiol. Behav.

Physiol. Behav.

Behavioral influences of the neuropeptides ACTH and MSH: A methodological review

Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.