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Biomedical subjects

T Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to T Thompson.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

Suppression of ethanol-reinforced lever pressing by delaying food availability.

When food was initially available to rats under a fixed-interval 26-second schedule and each liquid-reinforced lever press delayed food availability 8 seconds, suppression of liquid-reinforced lever pressing and liquid consumption occurred when the liquid presented was 4, 8, 16, 32, and 0% ethanol. Suppression did not occur in yoked-control animals, which received food coincidentally with experimental animals but were not directly exposed to the delay dependency. After exposure to the food schedule, each ethanol solution served as a reinforcer in the absence of food presentation. Delaying food availability for increasingly long periods (8 to 2048 seconds) suppressed ethanol-reinforced lever pressing and consumption relative to baseline levels, with the maximum decrease being below the level maintained in the absence of food. However, degree of suppression did not increase monotonically with delay length. Liquid-reinforced performance of yoked-control animals indicated that suppression did not result from changes in the sequencing of food presentation alone.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Ketamine self-administration by the rhesus monkey.

Intravenously administered ketamine served as a reinforcer of self-administration behavior in rhesus monkeys during daily 2-hour sessions. When the dose of ketamine was varied over a wide range at fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement of 1, 8 and 64, the response rate was an inverted U-shaped function of the dose. Maximal response rates occurred at progressively higher doses as the fixed-ratio size was increased; drug intake per session was positively related to the dose. When the ketamine dose was held constant and the fixed-ratio was increased in a geometric series, the response rate increased as the fixed-ratio was increased to FR 128 or FR 256; additional increases in fixed-ratio size produced abrupt decreases in response rates. Since the response rate increased linearly as the fixed-ratio was increased geometrically, drug intake was a decreasing function of the response requirement. With respect to magnitude of reinforcement and fixed-ratio response requirement, the data show that ketamine maintains self-administration behavior in a manner similar to that of a number of other drugs and conventional reinforcers.

Animals↗

Prevalence of diabetes in Michigan school-age children.

A mail survey of Michigan school districts elicited information of 2,816 children and adolescents with diabetes, a rate of 1.6 per 1,000. Rates were higher for females than males and for whites than non-whites and increased with advancing age. A total of 15.5 per cent were reported to be not receiving insulin by injection.

Adolescent↗

Responding maintained by the opportunity to attack during an interval food reinforcement schedule.

Pigeons responded in a two-key situation. Responses on the right key (food key) were reinforced with food presentation on a response-initiated fixed-interval schedule, (i.e., first response after a fixed period of time was reinforced); responses on the left key (target key) were reinforced on a fixed-ratio schedule (i.e., every nth response was reinforced) with the presentation of a target bird that could be attacked. When the interval value of the food reinforcement schedule was varied from 1 min to 5 min, both the rate of attack responding on the target bird and the rate of responding on the target key were a function of the interval value. Responding on the target key was not maintained by the stimulus change associated with target availability, and was successively extinguished and reconditioned by removing and returning the target bird to the restraining box. When food was delivered independently of behavior, responding on the target key either remained unchanged or decreased, but was not eliminated. Responding on the target key was not maintained in the absence of an intermittent schedule of food presentation.

Aggression↗