Conditioned avoidance has been one of the behavioral procedures frequently employed in the evaluation of tranquilizers and potential psychotherapeutic agents (Cook and WEIDLEY ; H~RZ ; T~D~SCI~I et al. ; LY~c~ et al. ; and others). Many of the agents which have been tested against conditioned avoidance behavior have also been investigated for their ability to alter isolation-induced aggression (Y~x et al. ; JA~ssEx et al. ; SCRIABIXE and BLAKE). However, attempts to determine the relative specificity with which a given drug alters either behavior have been frustrated by the necessity of comparing the results from different laboratories employing varying methods and different animals. The purpose of this study was to compare, in the same species of mouse, the effects of several central nervous system depressants on these two distinctly different behaviors, i.e., conditioned avoidance and aggression, and to examine the utility of such a comparison as a technique for the evaluation of potential tranquilizers and neuroleptic agents.
Methods
The experimental subjects were male, randomly bred, Swiss, albino mice obtained from Maxfield farms, Cincinnati, Ohio. These animals weighed between 16 and 33 g and were allowed free access to food (Purina Lab Chow) and water except during the actual test procedures.