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d-Amphetamine discrimination established under a conditional discrimination procedure in pigeons.
Yakubutsu, Seishin, Kodo = Japanese Journal of Psychopharmacology
|May 1, 1983
Summary
Pigeons learned to associate d-amphetamine injections with pecking a blue light and saline with a green light. This demonstrates drug discrimination in pigeons, similar to previous studies.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Animal behavior
Background:
- Drug discrimination studies investigate how substances affect behavior.
- Pigeons are commonly used models for studying drug effects on learning and choice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish discriminative control of pigeon responding by d-amphetamine versus saline.
- To characterize the dose-response relationship of d-amphetamine in a drug discrimination task.
Main Methods:
- Pigeons were trained to peck a key associated with either blue or green light.
- Reinforcement and extinction schedules were contingent on the colored light and the injection received (d-amphetamine or saline).
Main Results:
- Pigeons reliably discriminated between d-amphetamine and saline injections.
- The established drug discrimination showed dose-dependent effects, consistent with prior research.
Conclusions:
- D-amphetamine can serve as a discriminative stimulus in pigeons.
- This paradigm effectively models drug effects on choice behavior and provides a basis for further pharmacological research.