METHODS FOR MEASURING CHEMICALLY INDUCED BEHAVIORAL CHANGES IN VARIOUS MAMMALIAN SPECIES
Abstract
Progress during the 18-month period of this research contract is described in terms of the four principal research programs pursued: (1) Sequential responses (both monkeys and rats); (2) Vigilance; (3) Visual Exploration; and (4) Wisconsin Automatic Testing Apparatus (WATA). The most important advances in each of the programs are as follows. The monkey sequential responses research has been discontinued during the contract period because of inability to train monkeys to execute these response patterns. The rat sequential responses program has continued with the major emphasis being upon experiments on the effects of electrolytic lesions to several subcortical areas of the brain, and the effects of certain hallucinogenic agents both before and after the brain lesion. The single most important outcome of our research during the contract period has been in an outgrowth of the Vigilance program; namely, the experimental advantages of using an air-blast to motivate monkeys (and rats) in shuttle-box avoidance learning and performance. We found that an air-blast unconditioned stimulus (UCS) led to more stable and more rapid learning in squirrel and rhesus monkeys than did an electric grid shock UCS, and similar effects, including an absence of 'freezing behavior,' was obtained with rats. The balance of the Vigilance research was devoted to drug experiments on visual signal-from-noise detection behavior. The Visual Exploration program was devoted to determining the effects of atropine, chlorpromazine, amphetamine and chlordiazepoxide, each tested at three doses and for 10 hours.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 15, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0818682
Entities
People
- Vincent J. Polidora
Organizations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison