Opposite effects of vasotocin and of a specific vasotocin antiserum on active sleep of kittens.

The effects of intracerebroventricularly administered synthetic arginine vasotocin (AVT) or undiluted AVT, vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) antisera on active sleep (AS) of newborn kittens have been investigated in comparison with rabbit serum control. In contrast to AVP and OT antisera, AVT antiserum has produced opposite effects on AS as AVT itself. Since after 10 microliter of undiluted AVT antiserum the percentage of AS did not decrease under 20% and even after 100 microliter AS did not decrease under 5%, it is concluded that, at least during perinatal life, AVT could be considered as a neuromodulator with AS-promoting effect.