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Biomedical subjects

A I Leshner

Publications and source records attributed to A I Leshner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Psychology research and NIMH. Opportunities and challenges.

As an essential contributor to the scientific understanding of mental health and illness, psychology continues to be the leading discipline receiving National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) research support. Future behavioral science research initiatives at NIMH are likely to emphasize cognitive science, behavioral genetics, behavioral patterns and physiological systems, and personality, motivation, emotion, and interpersonal processes. Although prognostication is particularly risky in times of transition such as the present, advocacy efforts focused on mental-illness-related research are most likely to help the NIMH and the field if they avoid polarization and factionalization by providing equal encouragement for studies of biological aspects, of behavioral aspects, and of their interaction.

Animals

ACTH and vasopressin treatments immediately after a defeat increase future submissiveness in male mice.

Male mice were given a single injection of either adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or lysine vasopressin immediately after a defeat in an encounter with an aggressive male mouse. The defeated mice were tested for submissiveness at either 24 hours, 48 hours, or 7 days after the initial encounter. Both hormone treatments increased future submissiveness, although the time courses of the effects were different: The effects of ACTH disappeared after 48 hours, whereas those of vasopressin persisted for 7 days. These results suggest that changes in peptide hormone levels following naturally stressful experiences can affect the memory of those experiences, as expressed in future adaptive responses.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone

Desmethylimipramine (DMI) counteracts learned helplessness in rats.

In a study of the mechanisms controlling the learned helplessness phenomenon, rats were exposed to either inescapable preshocks or control procedures, treated with one of three dosages of desmethylimipramine, and tested for later adaptive responding. This catecholamine modulator attenuated the deficits in escape responding that ordinarily follow prior exposure to inescapable preshocks, and it did so in a dose-dependent fashion. These findings support the position that the learned helplessness phenomenon is mediated by catecholamine changes.

Animals

Anosmia in male rhesus monkeys does not alter copulatory activity with cycling females.

Three adult male rhesus monkeys were tested daily with intact adult female partners over the course of four or five mentstrual cycles. The males were made permanently anosmic by chemical ablation of the olfactory epithelium after the second or fourth cycle was completed. All males continued to display typical cycles of copulation with their partners after the anosmia procedures, with the shortest latencies to ejaculation occurring during the periovulatory phase of the partner's ovulatory cycle. Hence, female attractivity and cyclic copulatory performance of rhesus monkeys are not dependent upon olfactory signals.

Animals