Conditioned rotation: a behavioral analysis.
Rats trained to turn in circles have been used by a number of investigators to study brain dopamine metabolism. We report the results of a behavioral analysis of conditioned rotation and describe the apparatus used in our laboratory to train rats and monitor their performance. A novel discrimination procedure was used which required each rat to turn left in one training chamber with one set of stimulus conditions and right in a different chamber. Water-deprived animals were trained to circle for a water reward. Initial acquisition of this task required 11 days of training. At the end of acquisition, a discrimination test indicated that turning in the left and right directions was under stimulus control of the chamber environment. We found that trained turning had a highly stereotyped temporal organization with a rapid movement component during which the rat executed the turn, and a longer pause time component during which the rat consumed the water reinforcer.
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Denver.
J B
JB
Richards
K E
KE
Sabol
C R
CR
Freed
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
D011954:Receptors, Dopamine; D004298:Dopamine