Response decrement patterns after neuroleptic and non-neuroleptic drugs

Previous work has shown that administration of pimozide and other neuroleptic drugs can produce within-session response decrement patterns of appetitively-reinforced behaviour. This phenomenon has been described as an extinction-like pattern of responding and used as evidence for the hypothesis that these drugs attenuate the rewarding properties of food, water and electrical stimulation of the brain. The present study was carried out to investigate within-session patterns of responding maintained by food presentation or shock avoidance after administration of a variety of neuroleptic and non-neuroleptic drugs. Haloperidol, metoclopramide, pimozide and butaclamol produced within-session response decrements of both food-reinforced lever pressing and one-way shock avoidance. The atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine did not consistently produce similar effects nor did the alpha-adrenoceptor agonist clonidine, the opiate agonist morphine, the benzodiazepine anxiolytic chlordiazepoxide and the muscle relaxant methocarbamol, although all these drugs were tested up to doses which markedly disrupted responding. Thus, within-session response decrement patterns are a characteristic effect of dopamine-blocking neuroleptic drugs. However, because of the generally similar effects of these drugs on appetitively- and aversively-motivated behaviour, these effects are probably best interpreted as actions on motor, rather than motivational, mechanisms.