Nicotine has bimodal effects on anxiety, with low doses having an anxiolytic effect and high doses having an anxiogenic effect. The dorsal hippocampus is one of the brain areas that mediate the anxiogenic effect of nicotine through enhanced 5-HT release, but the nAChR subtype(s) that mediate these effects are not known. Intrahippocampal administration of a high dose of nicotine (1 micro g, 4.3 mM) had an anxiogenic effect in the social interaction test that was reversed by co-administration of a behaviourally inactive dose (1.9 ng, 4.3 micro M) of methyllycaconitine (MLA), which is an antagonist at alpha7 and alpha3 nAChR subunits. At a dose (0.8 ng, 4.3 micro ;M) at which its actions would be specific to alpha4beta2 and alpha3beta2 nAChRs dihydro-beta-erythroidine (DHbetaE) was unable to reverse nicotine's anxiogenic effect. Reversal was obtained with a 10-fold higher, but receptor non-specific concentration of DHbetaE (7.8ng, 43 micro M), suggesting that the DHbetaE reversal might have been due to action at alpha7 nAChRs. Exposure of hippocampal slices to MLA (0.25, 05, 1 and 10 micro M) significantly reduced the increase in [(3)H]5-HT release evoked by nicotine (100 micro M). DHbetaE (0.1-0.5 micro M) failed to reverse this effect of nicotine on [(3)H]5-HT release, although higher concentrations (1 and 10 micro M), at which alpha7 subunits would also be affected, were able to do so. Because of the lack of effects of low, receptor specific concentrations of DHbetaE, it is more likely that the MLA reversal of both nicotine's anxiogenic effect and its stimulation of [(3)H]5-HT release is due to action at alpha7 than at alpha3 units. This is perhaps also more likely because the alpha7 receptors are highly expressed in the dorsal hippocampus, whereas the alpha3 subunits are much less abundant. However, what is most important is that, in the dorsal hippocampus, nicotine's anxiogenic effect and induced release of [(3)H]5-HT are mediated by non alpha4beta2 nAChRs, which contrasts with the previously reported anxiolytic effect of a low dose of nicotine which is mediated by alpha4beta2 nAChRs within the dorsal raphé nucleus. Thus the anxiolytic and anxiogenic effects of nicotine can be distinguished both by brain region and by nicotinic receptor subtype.