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At least 775 records · Page 43Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Potent substituted-3 beta-phenyltropane analogs of cocaine have cocaine-like discriminative stimulus effects.

Two novel phenyltropane analogs of cocaine, 3 beta-(4-chlorophenyl) tropane-2 beta-carboxylic acid methyl ester (RTI-COC-31) and 3 beta-(4-methylphenyl) tropane-2 beta-carboxylic acid methyl ester (RTI-COC-32), were evaluated for cocaine-like discriminative stimulus effects in rats. Two groups of rats were trained to discriminate 10 mg/kg cocaine from saline using a standard 2-lever discrimination procedure with correct-lever responding reinforced under a fixed-ratio 20 schedule of food reinforcement. One group of rats was used to evaluate RTI-COC-31 and the unsubstituted-3 beta-phenyltropane reference compound WIN 35,065-2 in substitution tests. Another group of rats was used to evaluate RTI-COC-32. For purposes of comparison, a cocaine dose-effect curve was also determined in each group. Both RTI-COC-31 and RTI-COC-32, as well as WIN 35,065-2, substituted completely for cocaine. RTI-COC-31 was 26.8-fold and RTI-COC-32 was 6-fold more potent than cocaine for producing cocaine-lever responding. The potent cocaine-like effects of the RTI analogs in vivo correspond with their high affinities for a cocaine recognition site on the dopamine transporter, providing further evidence that this site may mediate behavioral effects of cocaine relevant to its abuse.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Persistence of ethanol self-administration as a function of interreinforcer interval and concentration.

Dipper cups filled with an ethanol solution were presented to Long-Evans hooded rats according to multiple extinction x s fixed-ratio 1 (mult EXT x s FR1) schedules of reinforcement. The scheduled duration of the EXT component was varied to manipulate minimum interreinforcer interval. Increasing the minimum interreinforcer interval by increasing the EXT component was used to challenge responding maintained by ethanol for purposes of evaluating the persistence of ethanol-maintained responding. EXT durations of 0 s (baseline conditions of continuous reinforcement) to 480 s were examined across ethanol concentrations of 0 (water, vehicle), 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32% (w/v). Increasing the EXT component duration resulted in reductions in the number of dipper presentations obtained at each concentration. Reductions in dipper presentations were less, relative to 0-s baseline conditions, the higher the concentration of the ethanol solution available. It was concluded that increasing the ethanol concentration that is self-administered increases the strength of responding that is subsequently maintained in that drug-maintained behavior becomes more resistant to modulation by a procedure (scheduling minimum interreinforcer intervals) which generally reduces numbers of drug deliveries.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed2002

QTL analysis of a red junglefowl x White Leghorn intercross reveals trade-off in resource allocation between behavior and production traits.

Behaviors with high energetic costs may decrease in frequency in domestic animals as a response to selection for increased production. The aim of this study was to quantify production traits, foraging behavior, and social motivation in F2 progeny from a White Leghorn x red junglefowl intercross (n = 751-1046) and to perform QTL analyses on the behavioral traits. A foraging-social maze was used for behavioral testing, which consisted of four identical arms and a central box. In two arms there was ad libitum access to the birds' usual food, and in the other two there was novel food (sunflower seeds) mixed with cat litter. In one arm with each of the two food sources, social stimuli were simulated by the presence of a mirror. Each bird could therefore feed on novel or well known food either alone or in the perceived company of a conspecific. Egg production, sexual maturity (females), food intake, and growth were measured individually, and residual food intake and metabolic body weight were estimated using standard methods. A genome scan using 104 microsatellite markers was carried out to identify QTLs affecting behavioral traits. Phenotypic growth rates at different ages showed weak associations in both sexes. Sexual maturity and egg weight were not strongly correlated to growth, indicating that these traits are not genetically linked. Time spent in each arm and in the central part of the maze was analyzed using principal component analyses. Four principal components (PC) were extracted, each reflecting a pattern of behavior in the maze. Females with early onset of sexual maturity scored higher on the PC1 reflecting preference for free food without social stimuli, and females with higher egg production scored higher on the PC2 reflecting exploration. Males with an overall higher growth rate and higher residual food intake scored higher on the PC3, which possibly reflected fear of the test situation, and tended to score higher on the PC4 reflecting low contrafreeloading. Significant QTLs were found for PC1 and PC4 scores on chromosomes 27 and 7, respectively. The location of the QTLs coincided with known QTLs for growth rate and body weight. The results suggest a trade-off between energy-demanding behavior and high production and that some of this may be caused by genetic linkage or pleiotropic gene effects.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Dissociable roles for the nucleus accumbens core and shell in regulating set shifting.

The ability to behave in a flexible manner is an executive function mediated in part by different regions of the prefrontal cortex. The present study investigated the role of two major efferents of the prefrontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core and shell, in behavioral flexibility using a maze-based strategy set-shifting task. During initial discrimination training, rats learned to use either an egocentric response or a visual-cue discrimination strategy to obtain food reward. During the set shift, animals had to shift from the previously acquired response or visual-cue-based strategy and learn the alternate discrimination. Inactivation of the NAc core, induced by infusion of the GABA agonists baclofen and muscimol, did not impair initial acquisition of either a response or visual-cue discrimination but severely disrupted shifting from one strategy to another. Analysis of the type of errors revealed that impairments in set shifting were not attributable to increased perseveration but to a disruption of the acquisition and maintenance of a new strategy. In contrast, inactivation of the NAc shell did not impair acquisition of either a response or a visual-cue discrimination, or shifting from one strategy to another. However, inactivation of the NAc shell before initial discrimination training improved performance during the set shift relative to control animals. These data indicate that the NAc core and shell make dissociable contributions to behavioral flexibility during set shifting. The NAc core facilitates the acquisition and maintenance of novel behavioral strategies and elimination of inappropriate response options, whereas the shell may mediate learning about irrelevant stimuli.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1994

Equine self-mutilation syndrome (57 cases)

Owners who believed they had a horse with self-mutilating behavior were asked to complete a questionnaire to obtain information on the signalment, clinical history, clinical signs, management, and treatment of the condition. Fifty-two owners of 59 horses responded; 2 cases were omitted because an organic cause was determined. Owners also were asked to complete information for unaffected horses on the same farm. Various breeds were affected, and of the 57 horses, 20 were stallions, 31 were geldings, and 6 were mares. Affected horses tended to develop the condition prior to sexual maturity. Clinical signs included glancing or biting at the flank or pectoral areas, bucking, kicking, vocalizing, rubbing, spinning, or rolling. Several management and environmental factors were examined, but none were found to be exclusively related to expression of the disorder. Castration was associated with improvement in 7 of 10 stallions. Medications and changes in management reduced or prevented the behavior in some horses. The syndrome appears to be similar to Tourette's syndrome of human beings.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2005

Appetitive responses to sexual stimuli are attenuated in individuals with low levels of sexual desire.

Despite the high prevalence of sexual desire disorders, little is known about their biological underpinnings in humans. Animal studies suggest that dopamine is involved in appetitive sexual behavior; thus, one aim of this study was to elucidate that relationship in humans. This study used measurement of the acoustic startle response (ASR) and prepulse inhibition of the startle response (PPI) as psychophysiological indicators of changes in motivational states to assess the potential relation between sexual desire and appetitive motivation in humans. Responses to sexually provocative stimuli consisting of single nude men and single nude women in a sample of 153 participants (77 men, 76 women) were assessed. The results indicated that ASR was attenuated after exposure to appetitive stimuli (i.e., sexually provocative pictures of attractive individuals) to a greater extent among participants with higher levels of sexual desire, as measured by the Sexual Desire Inventory-2 (Spector, I. P., Carey, M. P., & Steinberg, L. (1996). Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 22, 175-190). In addition, PPI was inversely associated with subjective ratings across stimuli such that greater subjective levels of desire were correlated with lower levels of PPI. In general, these results suggest that individuals with lower levels of sexual desire may have a diminished physiological response to appetitive sexual stimuli.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1991

Genetic differences in learning behavior in honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis).

Workers from colonies of Cape honeybees show marked phenotypic differences in performance in proboscis extension reflex (PER) conditioning. Analysis of these differences using parthenogenetic offspring groups permitted the estimation of genotypic values and revealed a high degree of genetic variability that is evident among related as well as unrelated bees. The results obtained from related groups are of particular importance, since they demonstrated the existence of strong genetic variability among individuals of the same colony. Quantitative analysis yielded high estimates of additive genetic effects and low estimates of dominance effects. Selection of individual workers resulted in an explicit increase in genetic variance of the next generation (G1). However, selection of bees from the parthenogenetic G1 generation, which was done to obtain parthenogenetic G2 offspring, did not lead to further improvement in selection. This observation suggests that recombination of linked genes underlying proboscis extension reflex was negligible during selection in parthenogenetic groups. Taken together with further behavioral analysis (Brandes and Menzel, 1990; Brandes et al., 1988), results from these quantitative genetic experiments suggest that additive genetic factors contribute significantly to variability among individuals for associative learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Redundant food searches by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): a failure of metacognition?

This study investigated capuchin monkeys' understanding of their own visual search behavior as a means to gather information. Five monkeys were presented with three tubes that could be visually searched to determine the location of a bait. The bait's visibility was experimentally manipulated, and the monkeys' spontaneous visual searches before tube selection were analyzed. In Experiment 1, three monkeys selected the baited tube significantly above chance; however, the monkeys also searched transparent tubes. In Experiment 2, a bent tube in which food was never visible was introduced. When the bent tube was baited, the monkeys failed to deduce the bait location and responded randomly. They also continued to look into the bent tube despite not gaining any pertinent information from it. The capuchin monkeys' behavior contrasts with the efficient employment of visual search behavior reported in humans, apes and macaques. This difference is consistent with species-related variations in metacognitive abilities, although other explanations are also possible.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Mixture suppression in behavior: the antennular flick response in the spiny lobster towards binary odorant mixtures.

The behavioral responses of Florida spiny lobsters towards various concentrations of binary mixtures and their constituents (AMP, betaine, cysteine, succinate, and taurine) were measured using an antennular flicking assay. The rate of flicking increases with dose and has low thresholds: flick rates towards each of the five chemicals increased with concentration with thresholds between 1 nM and 100 microM. A mixed receptor composition model, which incorporates knowledge of the composition of receptor site types and their distribution across receptor cells (15), was used to predict responses to binary mixtures based on responses to the individual constituents. Nine of the ten binary mixtures elicited response magnitudes which were less than predicted by this model, suggesting mixture suppression. These mixture interactions appear to be independent of the concentration of the mixture tested; rather, they occur with the same magnitude at all concentrations. These behavioral results corroborate findings in olfactory receptor cell studies which indicate the significant prevalence of mixture suppression towards some of the same binary mixtures (19,20).

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Same-different texture discrimination in pigeons: testing competing models of discrimination and stimulus integration.

The choice behavior of 6 pigeons performing a mulltidimensional same-different texture discrimination was examined. On each trial, they had to choose among 2 choice hoppers depending on whether a color, shape, or redundant (color and shape) target signal was present or not in a textured stimulus. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were produced by variations in the priori signal presentation probabilities across conditions. Quantitative analyses of these ROC curves were used to evaluate different competing theories of discrimination (signal detection vs. high-threshold-default response models) and information integration (independent observations, additive integration, unidimensional models). The results suggested the structure of the pigeons' choice behavior in this same-different discrimination was best described by an unequal variance signal detection model involving a unidimensional evidence variable (e.g., degree of difference).

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Tolerance to and residual effects of cocaine in squirrel monkeys depend on reinforcement-schedule parameter.

Lever pressing by 4 squirrel monkeys was maintained under a three-component multiple fixed-ratio schedule of food presentation; components differed with respect to ratio size. For each monkey, acute administration of cocaine (0.03 to 1.3 mg/kg, i.m.) produced dose-dependent decreases in overall response rate in each component. During repeated daily administration of 1.0 mg/kg of cocaine, tolerance developed to the rate-decreasing effects under each of the ratio contingencies, but developed to a greater extent and was evident in earlier parts of sessions for performance under the smaller ratios. Response rates of 2 monkeys increased above nondrug control levels despite the putative reinforcer not being consumed during the session. When saline or a smaller dose of cocaine was substituted for 1.0 mg/kg, response rates often were suppressed below nondrug control-level responding. This suppressive effect was observed in each monkey and was more likely to be observed and/or to be of greater magnitude in large-ratio components for 3 of the 4 monkeys. When saline was administered chronically at the end of the chronic-drug phase, response rates remained suppressed in the large-ratio component for 2 of the monkeys. There was, therefore, a schedule-dependent dissociation between behavioral tolerance and the residual effects: Tolerance was greater when small ratios were arranged, whereas the residual effects were more pronounced when larger ratios were arranged.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Multiple functions of context during conditioning: a developmental analysis.

Contextual stimuli may influence conditioned behavior in at least two ways (e.g. Bouton & Bolles, 1985). By becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus (US), context cues can acquire excitatory strength that facilitates responding to a phasic conditioned stimulus (CS). The context also can function to clarify the meaning of an ambiguous CS. Data obtained with an appetitive Pavlovian conditioning paradigm suggest that the processes mediating these two influences of context are dissociated during development. Evidence of context-US associations was observed in rats that began training on Postnatal Day 17, but no evidence for a disambiguation function was found until pups were 20- to 23-days-old. Evidence for a context-US association was obtained by demonstrating that US alone presentations in the training context restored conditioned responding to an extinguished CS. Evidence for a disambiguation function was obtained by demonstrating that a context shift, concurrent with extinction of responding to a phasic CS, preserved responding to the CS when the subjects were subsequently tested in the training context. These findings were discussed in relation to (a) the development of the rat's ability to use relational representations, and (b) Nadel and Zola-Morgan's (1984) hypothesis linking hippocampal maturation to the role of context during development.

Aging↗
PubMed1994

Swimming navigation, open-field activity, and extrapolation behavior of two inbred mouse strains with Robertsonian translocation of chromosomes 8 and 17.

Female mice from inbred strains carrying a Robertsonian translocation (nine CBARb and eight C57BL/6Rb) were compared with animals from their respective strains (seven CBA and nine C57BL/6) first in open-field activity (two exposures of 10-min duration), then during 5 days (with six trials each) in Morris' swimming navigation test, and finally, in their ability to extrapolate the future position of a food reward being moved slowly out of their reach. ANOVA (strain and translocation) revealed significant effects of Robertsonian translocations (Rb) in swimming navigation, Rb mice being impaired primarily in the initial phases of acquisition and during the first trials of platform reversal and the impairment being stronger in C57BL/6 mice. In the open field, Rb mice were as active as the normal strains but showed significantly increased path tortuosity and moved slightly faster. In the extrapolation task, Rb mice showed above-chance levels in moving to the target indicated by the disappearance of the stimulus, while normal mice chose at chance levels, but the translocation effects were not statistically significant. These data indicate that telocentric fusion of chromosomes may entail behavioral alterations, perhaps by subtle changes in neurotransmitters or limbic circuitry. The expression of such alterations, however, can be remarkably strain dependent.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Choice behavior of fornix-damaged rats in radial maze error-free situations and subsequent learning.

Fornix-damaged, sham-operated, and control rats were placed in a radial eight-arm maze for fixed series of runs with either a 0% or a 100% reinforcement schedule in order to study their choice behavior independently from any learning problem. Subsequently, the ability to learn the radial maze task was examined as a function of the exploratory patterns developed in each error-free situation. The results showed that the continuous absence or presence of food in the radial maze induced two distinct models of exploration in sham-operated and control rats: choice alternation in the absence of food and perseveration in the presence of food. Conversely, this dichotomy did not occur in fornix-damaged rats that run approximately the same number of paths in both error-free situations, but made fewer different path choices in the 0% reinforcement condition and more different path choices in the 100% reinforcement condition than controls. When submitted to the radial maze task, a positive transfer was observed in all groups from the error-free situation in which the rats run more different paths: from the 0% reinforcement situation for controls and from the 100% reinforcement situation for the lesioned rats. These data indicate that damaging the septo-hippocampal pathway modifies spontaneous choice behavior through a different response to specific reinforcement programs but does not prevent the memorization and the transfer of information from error-free to learning situations.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Consummatory feeding behavior to amino acids in intact and anosmic channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus.

The entire sequence of feeding behavior patterns exhibited by intact and anosmic channel catfish to food extracts was also released by single amino acids. L-arginine (> 10(-6) M), L-alanine (> 10(-6) M), and L-proline (> 10(-4) M) were each highly effective at releasing consummatory behavior patterns, such as turning, increasing pumping of water across the gill arches, and biting-snapping. Swallowing required solid objects, whereas rhythmic movement of the hyoid was released by > 10(-2) M L-arginine alone. For the biting-snapping behavior, the number of bites depended upon both the number of eddies containing the amino acid above the behavioral threshold concentration and the amino acid applied. Multiple eddies of > 10(-3) M L-proline and L-alanine provoked up to 25 bites per test; however, the most effective stimulus for releasing biting-snapping behavior at low concentrations was L-arginine (behavioral threshold 3 x 10(-7) M). In comparison to 10(-4) M L-alanine and L-arginine, other amino acids were less effective stimuli.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1994

Differential effects of muscimol microinjection into dorsal and ventral aspects of the premotor cortex of monkeys.

1. A gamma aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptor agonist, muscimol (Sigma, 5 micrograms/microliters solution), and a GABAB receptor agonist and antagonist, baclofen and phaclofen, respectively, were injected (1.0 microliter) into the dorsal and ventral aspects of the premotor cortex (PM) of two Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata), while they were performing a motor task that required wrist flexion or extension to a target. The correct movement was instructed by either 1) a conditional color cue [green or red light emitting diodes (LED)] equidistant from the targets or 2) a directional cue toward extension or flexion (right or left LED). When the green or right LED was illuminated, extension was to be performed. When the red or left LED was illuminated, flexion was required. The movement was triggered by a visual stimulus either simultaneously with the instruction stimulus or after a variable delay. 2. Before drug injection, single-unit recordings were made to select injection sites 1) in the dorsal aspect of the PM (PMd) around the superior precentral sulcus where typical set-related activity was frequently recorded and 2) in the ventral aspect of the PM (PMv) immediately caudal to the genu of the arcuate sulcus where movement-related neurons were densely located. 3. Behavioral deficits were observed primarily at the time muscimol, but not baclofen or phaclofen, was injected. Furthermore, muscimol effects were short-lasting: deficits were most frequently observed during the 10-min injection period but seldom after completion of injection. 4. When muscimol was injected into the PMd, there was an increase in the number of direction errors primarily when the conditional cues were presented. The initiated movements were similar in amplitude and velocity to the preinjection behavior. In contrast, when muscimol was injected into the PMv, many of the initiated movements showed smaller amplitudes and slower velocities, but few direction errors were made. 5. These results suggest that the PMd and PMv play differential roles in motor control: the PMd is more important than PMv in conditional motor behavior and plays a role in the preparation for forthcoming movements. In contrast, the PMv is more specialized for a role in the execution of visually guided movements.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Meal patterns of cats encountering variable food procurement cost.

The meal patterns of 2 cats in a laboratory habitat with variable foraging costs were examined in a foraging paradigm in which subjects could initiate meals at any time by completing a predetermined number of bar presses (the procurement price) and then could eat any amount. From meal to meal, the procurement price either was fixed or varied among a geometric series of five prices. As the fixed price or the mean of the variable prices increased, meal frequency decreased and meal size increased; daily intake was unaffected. Within variable-price schedules, meal size was not related to the just-paid procurement price. These results suggest that cats respond to the global rather than to the local cost structure of their habitat. They appear to respond to an average of the prices encountered, initiating meals of a frequency and size appropriate to that average. This was true even when the average price was high, meals were infrequent, and thus price encounters were widely separated in time. Therefore, the time window over which the consequences of behavior can affect behavior is longer than often conceived, at least in economies in which the animal controls its intake and the frequency, size, and distribution of its meals.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Behavioral deficits induced by bingelike exposure to alcohol in neonatal rats: importance of developmental timing and number of episodes.

The importance of the timing and number of episodes of bingelike alcohol exposure in neonatal rats on subsequent behavioral outcomes was evaluated with a parallel bar task and a spatial conditional alternation task. Different groups of Sprague-Dawley rat pups were exposed to alcohol delivered via artificial rearing procedures either on postnatal Days (PD) 4 and 5, on PD 8 and 9, or on both PD 4/5 and 8/9 (Combined), producing daily peak blood alcohol concentrations around 400 mg/dl. Controls included an artificially reared group and a normally reared group. Exposure during PD 4/5 produced significantly more severe motor deficits and significantly more severe reductions in cerebellar and brainstem weights than did exposure on PD 8/9. Combined exposure produced greater deficits on these measures than either of the limited exposures. Significant deficits in the acquisition rates for conditional alternation were found only with the Combined exposure, although both the PD 8/9 and Combined groups committed significantly more within-trial errors. All three alcohol treatments produced significant and comparable reductions in forebrain weight. The type and severity of behavioral and neural deficits induced by neonatal bingelike alcohol exposure depend on the timing and number of exposures.

Alcoholic Intoxication↗