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Science 14 July 1967:
Vol. 157. no. 3785, pp. 213 - 215
DOI: 10.1126/science.157.3785.213
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Articles

Aminoacidemias: Effects on Maze Performance and Cerebral Serotonin

Charles M. McKean 1, Saul M. Schanberg 1, and Nicholas J. Giarman 1

1 Sonoma State Hospital, Brain-Behavior Research Center, Eldridge, California 95431, and Department of Pharmacology, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut

The feeding of high dietary supplements of L-phenylalanine (7 percent) and L-leucine (7 percent) to weanling rats is associated with poor performance in a multiple-T, water-escape maze. Supplements high in L-tryptophan (5 percent), on the other hand, result in maze performance which is superior to that of controls. Adding 5 percent tryptophan to the high-phenylalanine diet reverses the behavioral deficit. The quality of maze performance correlated with the cerebral content of serotonin.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)