Date of Award

1-1-1986

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The effects of two vasopressin analogues, arginine vasopressin (AVP) and desmopressin acetate (DDAVP), upon various aspects of arousal, attention and memory were examined in this study. Sixty-two male college students were treated intranasally with either AVP (24 IU), DDAVP (24 IU), or saline. Arousal, attention and memory measures included: the Thayer Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List (AD-ACL), the Eysenck Personality Inventory Introversion-Extraversion scale, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate, digit span, a Sternberg Item Recognition Task, immediate free-recall, delayed free-recall, and recognition. Treatment with vasopressin affected AD-ACL scores, pulse rate, rate of respiration, and motor-responsivity, all of which suggested an action upon arousal mechanisms. Furthermore, treatment with vasopressin altered attention or encoding during immediate free-recall, and altered response selection processes during the Sternberg task. There were no effects upon blood pressure, digit span, encoding or serial comparison processes during the Sternberg task, serial position effects within immediate recall, delayed recall, or recognition. These results indicated that vasopressin's effects were complex, specific and not easily localized within a single behavioral category. In addition, AVP and DDAVP were found to have different patterns of action. When AD-ACL scores were examined, DDAVP produced a rapid decrease in arousal while AVP produced a slight decrease, followed by an increase in arousal. DDAVP increased respiration rates in introverted subjects, whereas AVP did not alter respiration. Additionally, both AVP and DDAVP increased motor-responsivity and pulse rate, but AVP appeared to be more potent than DDAVP. In the Sternberg task, treatment with AVP, but not DDAVP, enhanced response selection. Lastly, AVP produced an impairment in immediate recall while DDAVP both impaired and enhanced recall. Thus, the effects of AVP and DDAVP were dissimilar in both the direction and strength of their actions. Further investigational directions were suggested in this dissertation, with emphasis placed on the specificity and complexity of vasopressin's actions. Moreover, this study demonstrated a need for comparative examinations into the behavioral effects of various analogues.

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