Amphetamine affects the start of responding in the peak interval timing task.
In this paper we investigate how amphetamine affects performance in a PI task by comparing two analyses of responding during peak trials. After training on 24 s fixed interval (FI-24) with 96 s peak trials, rats were given amphetamine for 4 consecutive days at doses of .5 and 1.0 mg/kg. Responses during peak trials were fitted with a Gaussian distribution to estimate the expected time of reinforcement from the peak time. A single trials analysis was also performed to determine the start time and stop time of the transition into and out of a high rate of responding on each peak trial. Amphetamine significantly decreased peak times as measured with the Gaussian curve fitting. However, in the single trials analysis, animals initiated responding significantly earlier, but did not stop responding earlier. Thus, fitting a Gaussian to the average performance across trials sometimes provides a different characterization of the timing process than does analyzing the start and stop of responding on individual trials. In the current experiment, the latter approach provided a more precise characterization of the effects of amphetamine on response timing.
Taylor
Kathleen M
KM
Department of Psycology, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027, United States. ktaylor@barnard.edu
Horvitz
Jon C
JC
Balsam
Peter D
PD
D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D015259:Dopamine Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
D015259:Dopamine Agents; D000661:Amphetamine