Possible involvement of serotonin in extinction

In Experiment 1, rats were trained to leverpress for continuous reinforcement with food; half were then intubated with the serotonin synthesis inhibitor parachlorophenylalanine (PCPA: 400 mg/kg) and half with water. In extinction the PCPA-treated rats responded at a higher rate. In Experiment 2, rats were trained on a random interval schedule and then assigned to two groups, treated as in Experiment 1, and tested in extinction. There was no significant difference in the resistance to extinction of the two groups. In Experiment 3, the responding of rats trained in a punished stepdown response paradigm and then given an intragastric injection of PCPA took longer to recover than the responding of water-injected controls. These observations suggest that serotonergic neurons might play a role in extinction processes.