Lecture 5- Behavioural Pharmacology Flashcards
What is behavioural pharmacology
The study of the relationship between the pharmacological actions of drugs and their effects on behaviour and psychological function
Why not just experiment on humans
Largely because of more severe ethical implications, especially with drug naive subjects
What is the primary evaluation of the effects of drugs on spontaneous behaviour
Start with an observation of simple “unconditioned” behaviours
What is the secondary evaluation of the effects of drugs on spontaneous behaviour
Look at specific types of effects
What is analgesia
Pain relief
Tail flick test
-Measure time before rodent moves away from heat
-Increase with opioids
Drugs do not create
New behaviours
They alter the probability of behaviours
Rota rod test
-Tests balance and function
-Rotating rod slowly accelerates
-Measure time to fall off
Elevated puzzle maze
-Test if anxiety
-Measure the amount of time that rodents spend in exposed maze arms compared to sheltered
What is the elevated plus maze predictive of
Highly predictive of anxiolytic efficacy in humans
Radical arm maze
-Used in a variety of memory tests
-Food on one of the arms
-Change position of food after a certain amount of trials
Morris water maze
-Large tank of water in a room with external cues for navigation
-Platform to find
-Measure time finding platform, path length, % of time searching correct location
Drug discrimination
-Used to ask animals what drugs feel like
-e.g. Placebo associated with left lever
-Cocaine associated with right lever
-X drug tested, which lever
Advantages of drug discrimination
-Highly sensitive
-Accurate predictions of human subjective effects
Disadvantages of drug discrimination
-Drugs are more complex than this
-Produce different effects depending on route, dose, individual etc
Often times withdrawal symptoms are the opposite of
Drug Symptoms
Steps of comparing drugs via relief of withdrawal symptoms
-Produce physical dependence with prototypical drug
-Withdrawal and give test drug
-If that blocks withdrawal symptoms, will probably produce dependence symptoms
Criticism of comparing drugs via relief of withdrawal symptoms
Not a highly conclusive test
Positive reinforcement
Presentation increases the probability of preceding behaviour
Negative reinforcement
Removal increases the probability of a behaviour
Punishment
Presentation decreases the probability of a behaviour
A single drug can have what 3 effects all at once
-Positive reinforcement
-Negative reinforcement
-Punishment
Conditioned place preference (CPP)
-Environment that receives drugs
-Environment that receives nothing
-Animal chooses environment to be in
Advantages of CPP
-Simple
-Limited effort required
-Subjects learn quickly
-Test in non drug states
