Apomorphine-induced rotation in normal rats and interaction with unilateral caudate lesions.

Apomorphine (i.p.) induced rotational behavior (i.e. circling) in normal unoperated rats. This rotation increased with increasing dose up to 10.0 mg/kg, after which the dose-response curve appeared to plateau. Although there was large variability among rats, rotation for each rat was consistent in both direction and magnitude from week to week. Rotation was not antagonized by alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine. When rats with unilateral lesions of the caudate nucleus were tested with apomorphine, postoperative rotation was significantly influenced by the direction of preoperative rotation; rats rotated more postoperatively if the lesion was made ipsilateral rather than contralateral to their preoperative direction of rotation. These results suggest that there is a bilateral asymmetry of dopaminergic receptors in the nigro-striatal pathways of normal rats.