Arginine vasotocin delays extinction of a conditioned avoidance behavior in neonatal chicks.
One minute after single-trial avoidance conditioning, young cockerels received intracerebroventricular or intraperitoneal injections of saline or arginine vasotocin (dose range: 0.004 to 16 micrograms/chick). Retroactive enhancement of the learned response was observed 24 hours post-training for some dose levels, but not for others. A 0.4 micrograms vasotocin dose also delayed extinction when injected 9 minutes after training. Behavioral similarities between avian and mammalian responses to vasotocin and other neuroactive peptides are discussed.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D002645:Chickens; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D014668:Vasotocin / Q000494:pharmacology*
D014668:Vasotocin