Ch 4 Research Methods Flashcards
What are some advantages of animal testing
Similar genetic backgrounds
Can maintain controlled environment
Can use invasive neurobiological techniques
What is the operant self-administration technique?
Animals lever press for drugs rather than food reward
An accurate predictor of abuse potential in humans.
Varying the schedule of reinforcement indicates how reinforcing a given drug is, because when the effort of lever pressing exceeds the reinforcement value, the animals fail to press further (the “breaking point”).
Constrast In Vivo and In Vitro
In Vivo - observed in a living organism
In Vitro - Observed outline the body (in a test tube)
What are some examples of behavioural tests?
- Simple behavioral observation -
How are simple behavirual observations methods used?
simple requires almost no instruments. Just observations of things like tremors, salivations, pooping, reflexes etc.
What are measures of motor activity used for?
used for drugs that cause sleep, sedation or loss of coordination.
May be done with infrared beams, or OPEN FIELD TEST - animal placed on a grid; researcher tracks number of squares crossed per time unit
What is operant conditioning/behaviour testing?
Principle: Operant conditioning - consequences control behaviors. e.g. respond to rewards and avoid punishment
Used for:
Addiction potential
Anxiety
Analgesia
What are some measures of analgesia?
Analgesia - reduction of perceived pain without loss of consciousness
Tail-flick test: heat via laser beam of light focused on rats tail
What are some techniques that study learning and memory?
Classic T-maze - choice points that lead to final goal box
Radial arm maze (spacial learning) - multiple arms radiation away from central choice point, with small reward at each arm (mimics foraging behaviour)
Moris water maze (spacial learning) - must swim through murky water to escape platform
Delayed response tasks (working memory)
How is anxiety typically studied?
Through use of unconditioned animal reactions-
tendency to avoid :
brightly lit places (light–dark crossing task - measures time spent in light , open field test - measures time spent in unprotected centre)
heights (elevated plus-maze)
electric shock (Vogel test)
novelty (novelty suppressed feeding)
Geller-Serifter conflict test
What are some measures of fear
Typically involve classical conditioning or fear-potentiated startle
What are the classic techniques of physiological psychology?
Stereotaxic surgery: researcher implants one of several devices in the brain of a anestehtized animial with significant precision
Lesioning: aka experimental ablation - uses stereotaxic surgery to destroy brain tissue with very high frequency radio waves. Used to learn about function of brain areas
Microdialysis: using stereotaxic surgery, alllows researchers to measure neurotransmitters released in a specific brain region while the subject is actively engaged in a behavior
Describe methods of electrophysiological stimulation
Macroelectrodes: Can be implanted to activate cells to increase action potentials - can also help to understand different regions of the brain
Microelectrodes: stereotaxically implanted into a single cell for intracellular or extra cellular recordingin
What is radioligand binding
Studies the number of receptors in a given brain region and their affinity for drugs. Uses ground up tissues
Receptor autoradiography
Same as radioligand binding, except uses slices of tissues not ground up tissue.
Used to visualized LOCATION of receptros in the brain
