Enhanced appetitive discrimination learning in rats treated with α-methyltyrosine

✍ Scribed by Clifford B. Saper; Daryl C. Sweeney

• Book ID: 104769276
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 477 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-3158
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00422792

✦ Synopsis

Thirty-two male albino rats were trained on a black-white discrimination for water reward. Forty-eight hours later, half were tested for memory of the task and the other half trained on a reversal. Subjects received cr (a-MT), an inhibitor of catecholamine (CA) biosynthesis, by multiple i.p. injections of 50 mg/kg, before the training session, before the testing or reversal, before both, or before neither. Data analysis showed that drugged rats learned the black-white discrimination in fewer trials (p < 0.0005), but had longer latencies (p < 0.0005). These data are contrasted to cr depression of the conditioned avoidance response (CAR), and the difference attributed to the role of CA in motor ability and in attention.