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Biomedical subjects

D Benton

Publications and source records attributed to D Benton.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

The relationship between blood alcohol levels and aggression in mice.

Previous reports of the impact of ethanol on murine aggression have produced inconsistent findings; some workers have found that low doses of ethanol increase aggression whereas others have reported either no effect or a suppression. The present study examined one variable that may help to account for these inconsistencies, namely the level of blood alcohol at various times after administration. Acute doses of 0.5, 1, 2 g/kg ethanol all potently suppressed fighting in mice. However, there was no simple relationship between blood alcohol levels and fighting. It appeared that the level of blood alcohol, whether these levels were falling and the time since alcohol was cleared from the blood were all factors that influenced the drugs anti-aggressive influence.

Aggression↗
PubMed1984

An ethological analysis of the influence of perinatally-administered diazepam on murine behaviour.

A number of studies have found that the perinatal exposure of rodents to various tranquilizing agents alters their adult behaviour. Given the known anti-aggressive influence of acute doses of diazepam it was hypothesized that, when administered during pregnancy, this drug would change the adult social behaviour. The social interactions of adult male mice whose mothers were treated with diazepam or appropriate controls during pregnancy were video-taped and subjected to an ethological analysis that involved counting the incidences of 43 distinct postures. Prenatal but not postnatal diazepam treatment was associated with a large increase in the incidence of the sideways offensive posture. No significant differences resulted, however, in the case of other postures; in general exposure to prenatal diazepam produced few changes in adult social behaviour.

Aggression↗
PubMed1984

Preoperative differential housing and dorsal hippocampal lesions in rats.

Rats housed in impoverished environments often show greater behavioral deficits after receiving brain lesions than to rats housed in standard or enriched environments. However, the resemblance between the effects of social isolation and those of hippocampal lesions in rats prompted the suggestion that rats socially isolated at weaning rather than grouped counterparts may show less behavioral change after sustaining dorsal hippocampal lesions when adult. In socially reared rats, hippocampal lesions produced increased ambulation and object contact in an open field, reduced passive avoidance in a runway task, and produced faster acquisition of active avoidance in a shuttle box, but there were no such differences in isolation-reared rats. Ambulation and object contact in isolates were intermediate to those of rats with lesions and intact group-housed rats, and the behavior of isolates during passive and active avoidance training was generally similar to that of grouped rats with lesions. The introduction of a distractor during approach training in an alley reduced running speeds more in rats with lesions than in controls. The several significant interactions between housing state and lesion state suggest that neural pathways associated with the hippocampal formation may mediate some behavioral effects of differential housing.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Behavioural examinations of the anti-aggressive drug fluprazine.

The behavioural influence of the anti-aggressive drug Fluprazine (DU 27716) was examined using an ethological technique. The drug inhibited aggressive behaviour but not in an entirely specific way. Fluprazine also stimulated non-social and defensive/flight behaviours; there was a greater tendency for drug-treated animals to avoid their opponents. Using an automatic recording technique the drug's anti-aggressive action was monitored for 23 h. There was a potent anti-aggressive influence that lasted for up to 4 h. However, when the drug-effect wore off there were bouts of fighting. Over 23 h Fluprazine did not significantly decrease the total aggression recorded.

Aggression↗
PubMed1981

Behavioral and adrenocortical reactivity in female mice following individual or group housing.

Female "TO" strain mice were individually or group-housed for different durations (7-196 days). Behavioral reactivity was assessed for 3 days in an open field and an emergence test. Plasma samples were later collected after 5 min exposure to ethyl ether vapor; these generated "stress" corticosterone values. "Basal" corticosterone titers were obtained from similar untested and unanesthetized categories of mice. "Ether-stress" values were obtained from a limited number of mice subjected to ether anesthesia but no behavioral testing. Neither the basal nor the stress adrenocortical activities of the 2 housing categories differed. Open-field ambulation increased with longer durations of isolation, whereas for grouped mice it remained approximately constant. Individually housed mice had significantly lower defecation scores and longer emergence times than group-housed mice. In sum, little support was provided for the view that isolation is stressful.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

The effect of increased brain GABA produced by amino-oxyacetic acid on arousal in rats.

Previous work has reported behavioral arousal in the rat to be inversely related to cortical GABA production. Therefore the effects of an increase in brain GABA levels, induced by amino-oxyacetic acid, on measures of behavioural arousal such as rearing and ambulation were examined. The increase in GABA was immediately associated with decreased rearing, however the behaviour was later indistinguishable from control values while the levels of brain GABA remained raised. It was suggested that the return to normal behaviour that occurred while brain GABA levels were increased, reflected an interaction between excitatory and inhibitory systems, and that a compensation had occurred to return the balance to normal. The pre-treatment with alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine, known to deplete brain noradrenaline and dopamine, prevented the characteristic return of normal behaviour that followed the injection of amino-oxyacetic acid. This data is consistent with GABA and noradrenaline or dopamine-mediated systems interacting in the control of behavioural arousal. The depletion of serotonin with p-chloro-phenylalanine did not prevent the characteristic recovery of behaviour that followed the injection of amino-oxyacetic acid.

Acetates↗