title: Drug discrimination training with low doses: maintenance of discriminative control.
abstract: Procedures are reported that maintain control by the drug cue during and after drug discrimination training with lower doses that yield predominantly vehicle-appropriate choices. Twelve pigeons were trained to discriminate chlordiazepoxide (CDP) from saline using two-key (drug vs. vehicle) drug discrimination procedures. Intermixed within each block of 30 sessions were nine sessions of training with 8.0 mg/kg CDP, nine with one of seven lower training doses (4.0, 2.8, 2.0, 1.4, 1.0, 0.7, or 0.5 mg/kg CDP), and 12 with saline. The lower training dose was decreased across blocks. The three lowest training doses (1.0, 0.7, and 0.5 mg/kg CDP) yielded predominantly saline-appropriate choices but had no effect on discrimination of 8.0 mg/kg CDP or saline. Three doses (2.0, 1.4, and 1.0 mg/kg CDP) were retrained, and each yielded percentages of drug-appropriate choices nearly identical to those obtained during previous training. This drug discrimination procedure maintains control by the drug cue during and after training with vehicle-like doses of the training drug and may allow for repeated assessment of effects of low training doses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Busch Campus), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tomie
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Shultz
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Spicer
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Peoples
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010856:Columbidae; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule
chemical_list: D002707:Chlordiazepoxide