Behavioural Pharmacology Flashcards
What effects of drugs can be tested in animals?
analgesia
anxiety
cognitive function
How can the analgesic effects of a drug be tested?
measure the time taken for an animal to move away from a heat source; tail flick, hot plate
How can the anxiolytic effects of a drug be tested?
elevated plus maze test; measure the amount of time an animal spends on exposed arms compared to dark, sheltered arms - highly predictive of human effects
How can the cognitive effects of a drug be tested?
radial arms maze; spatial memory, cue-reward associations
morris water maze; spatial learning test
How can drug reinforcement/incentive be measured?
conditioned place preference learning
drug self-administration
What is conditioned place preference learning?
pairing an environment with a drug and measuring the amount of time an animal will subsequently spend in that environment
What is a progressive ratio schedule?
exponential increase in the number of responses required for a reward, measures the breakpoint and drug motivation without consumption of a large amount of drug
What is the rotarod test?
a test of balance and motor function
What is positive reinforcement?
when the presentation of a stimulus increases a behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
when the removal of a stimulus increases a behaviour
What is punishment?
when the presentation of a stimulus decreases a behaviour
What are the advantages of a conditioned place preference test?
simple procedure
limited effort required
test administered in non-drug state
What are the disadvantages of a conditioned place preference test?
doesn’t measure the rewarding effects of the drug itself, but the rewarding effects of the conditioned reinforcer
psychological and biological mechanisms poorly understood
What is the gold standard of drug experiments?
IV injections that provide precise control of dose and timing
Which drugs will non-human animals not administer?
hallucinogens
How do the different schedules produce different behaviours?
FR schedules produce steady working for the drug
FI schedules produce scalloped plots
Why do we see inverted U shapes on simple ratio/interval schedules?
satiety
preferred drug level
incapacitation
Is rate of responding a good measure of reward?
it can be misleading as although responding may start decreasing, the total dose may still be increasing
What experiment demonstrate conflicting evidence for responding-reward be observed?
DA lesions decrease amphetamine self-administration
DA antagonism increases self-administration
- both are interpreted as a loss of reward
What are the benefits of a progressive ratio?
measures drug motivation; the maximum amount of effort that will be gone to for a reward
much less drug is consumed so lower satiation and motor side-effects
What is a disadvantage of a progressive ratio?
extinction learning may occur
What stimuli can reinstate drug taking?
drug prime
drug cue
drug context
stress
What do extended access models reveal about drug taking?
Ahmed & Koob; rats with longer access to drugs have a much greater totally intake and intake in the first hour
