Intracerebral SCH 23390 and catalepsy in the rat.

Stereotaxic injection of SCH 23390 (D-1 antagonist), but not water or ritanserin (5-HT antagonist), into all parts of the caudate-putamen, elicited an immediate and often long-lasting catalepsy in 79% of rats. Similar results were obtained with SCH 23390 delivered into the nucleus accumbens and globus pallidus, but not into a variety of other brain sites. The results support the idea that SCH 23390-induced catalepsy is related to the occlusion of dopamine D-1 receptors in the forebrain, particularly the striatum, although the topography of the catalepsy evoked by intrastriatal SCH 23390 did not match the distribution of D-1 sites labelled in autoradiographic studies.