Evaluation of response perseveration of rats in the radial arm maze following reinforcing and nonreinforcing drugs.
The behavioral effects of three drugs with high abuse potential (amphetamine, heroin, and nicotine) and two substances with low abuse potential (haloperidol and scopolamine) were evaluated in an eight-arm radial maze. Rats were trained to explore the maze for the food reward. Unlike most radial arm maze paradigms, a food pellet was made available every time the rat entered an arm; thus, no external restrictions were placed upon rats' exploratory pattern. Following 3 days of drug-free training, rats were injected prior to testing with one of the five drugs. Analysis of the sequences of arm entries demonstrated that the variability of the search strategy was significantly decreased by amphetamine, heroin, and nicotine. In contrast, scopolamine and haloperidol either decreased or had no effect on preservation. These data, along with previous data on ethanol and diazepam, lead to the speculation that drugs of abuse may share the common property of reducing behavioral variability.
Loh
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Department of Psychology, LSRB, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Smith
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Roberts
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D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D005502:Food; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000187:drug effects; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000494:pharmacology; D003932:Heroin / Q000494:pharmacology; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology
D009538:Nicotine; D003932:Heroin; D000661:Amphetamine; D012601:Scopolamine; D006220:Haloperidol