Disruption of brightness discrimination in a shock avoidance task by phencyclidine and its antagonism in rats

Rats were trained to make a simultaneous brightness discrimination in order to avoid or escape foot shocks in an automated Y-maze. Brightness discrimination was completely disrupted by phencyclidine (PCP, 3 mg/kg), ketamine (30 mg/kg) and dexoxadrol (10 mg/kg). At these doses, there was increased lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics Vol. 225; no. 3; pp. 503 - 508
Main Authors Tang, A H, Franklin, S R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.1983
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Subjects
Anesthetics, Dissociative - pharmacology
Animals
Avoidance Learning - drug effects
Discrimination Learning - drug effects
Drug Antagonism
Electroshock
Male
Phencyclidine - pharmacology
Photic Stimulation
Psychotropic Drugs - pharmacology
Rats
Rats, Inbred F344
Structure-Activity Relationship
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Summary:Rats were trained to make a simultaneous brightness discrimination in order to avoid or escape foot shocks in an automated Y-maze. Brightness discrimination was completely disrupted by phencyclidine (PCP, 3 mg/kg), ketamine (30 mg/kg) and dexoxadrol (10 mg/kg). At these doses, there was increased locomotor activity between trials. The number of movement attempts to avoid shock during a trial were either unchanged or reduced. Several drugs with various clinical applications (chlorpromazine, haloperidol, diazepam, pentobarbital, d-amphetamine, propranolol, clonidine and prazosin) did not impair brightness discrimination in behavioral stimulant or depressant doses. The levoisomer of dexoxadrol, levoxadrol, was also inactive. Daily administration of PCP for 5 consecutive days produced progressive increases in locomotor stimulation with no tolerance to effects on brightness disruption. The disruption of brightness discrimination by PCP was not reversed by chlorpromazine, haloperidol, diazepam, propranolol or apomorphine at doses which reduced the locomotor stimulation by PCP. Both locomotor stimulation and discrimination disruption were blocked by prazosin and clonidine. A central adrenergic mechanism is implicated for some behavioral effects of PCP.
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ISSN:0022-3565
1521-0103
DOI:10.1016/S0022-3565(25)33619-0