THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF THE OPERANT BEHAVIOR TECHNIQUE FOR STUDIES OF BEHAVIORAL PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY IN THE RAT

Authors
  1. Morris, P.
  2. Tsang, R.
Corporate Authors
Defence Research Establishment Suffield, Ralston ALTA (CAN);Grant (G A) Scientific Consultants Ltd, Nepean ONT (CAN)
Abstract
The investigation determined the usefulness of the operant behavior technique for behavioral pharmacology and toxicology studies in rats. In initial studies assessing the reliability of various operant behavior paradigms, the operant performance of 23.5 hr water deprived rats maintained on a fixed interval 60 second reinforcement schedule (FI 60) for a drink of saccharin solution as reward was not influenced by experimental day or time of day, two factors which might act as confounding variables in actual experiments. By comparison, performance under a fixed ratio 12-fixed interval 60 schedule was significantly reduced by experimental day and performance under a fixed ratio 10 schedule was significantly reduced in the afternoon. In subsequent drug studies, FI 60 performance was significantly reduced 1 hr after combined administration of atropine (17 mg/kg, i.p.) and HI-6 (125 mg/kg, i.p.), the recognized treatment for exposure to several nerve agents. TRUNCATED
Report Number
DRES-CR-25-91 — Contract Report (Final)
Date of publication
01 Jan 1991
Number of Pages
79
DSTKIM No
91-03286
CANDIS No
70477
Format(s):
Hardcopy;Originator's fiche received by DSIS

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