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Biomedical subjects

J D Findley

Publications and source records attributed to J D Findley.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Comparison of progressive-ratio performance maintained by cocaine, methylphenidate and secobarbital.

Cocaine, methylphenidate and secobarbital were compared on a drug maintained progressive-ratio procedure in baboon subjects. Trials, scheduled throughout the day, occurred at a minimum interval of 3 hrs after completion of the preceding trial. A ratio response requirement on the "initiate" lever was required during each trial which terminated in a single intravenous infusion of drug. A drug was introduced on the progressive-ratio procedure with a low ratio requirement in order to obtain a baseline performance of a high stable frequency of trial completion. The ratio requirement was systematically increased every 7 days until the "breaking point" when the rate of completing trials fell below a criterion level. Within-subject comparison revealed that cocaine produced higher breaking points than methylphenidate at the same absolute dose, 0.4 mg/kg. At the range of doses studied, manipulation of doses of methylphenidate (0.1-0.8 mg/kg) and cocaine (0.4-1.6 mg/kg) had little effect on breaking point. In contrast, increasing doses of secobarbital (6.0 and 12.0 mg/kg) produce higher breaking points within the same subjects.

Animals

Instrumental conditioning of large-magnitude, daily, 12-hour blood pressure elevations in the baboon.

Blood pressure and heart rate were monitored continuously in four baboons during extended exposure to a daily 12-hour conditioning procedure providing food and shock-avoidance as contingent consequences of prespecified increases in diastolic blood pressure. Sustained and significant increases (30 to 40 mm-Hg) in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were maintained throughout the daily 12-hour conditioning sessions, accompanied by elevated heart rates.

Animals

Second-order avoidance behavior in monkeys.

Two monkeys were trained on a three-component multiple schedule using discrete trials. In one component (food), a response terminated a red stimulus and produced food and S(Delta). In the second component (avoidance), a response terminated a green stimulus and avoided shock. In the third component (optional), a response terminated a blue stimulus and produced S(Delta). The consequence of not responding in the blue stimulus, however, was the production of either a food or an avoidance trial. Manipulation of these consequences showed that when food trials were available only a small percent of the time after optional trials, the subjects tended not to respond in the blue, even though this led to an increase in the total number of avoidance trials per day. If only avoidance trials followed as a consequence of not responding in the optional component, the animals terminated the blue stimulus and avoided the avoidance trials. Throughout the experiment both subjects maintained consistently low shock rates (about 10 per day) and these were not affected by the various manipulations. The data suggest that a stimulus associated with avoidance can be a conditioned aversive stimulus and will maintain a more remote avoidance response under certain conditions.

Animals

A note on time out from avoidance with the chimpanzee.

Fixed-interval responding which produced time out from shock avoidance schedules was established in a chimpanzee. Two widely differing discriminated avoidance schedules were employed in a multiple schedule arrangement. Differences in fixed interval rate were found to be related both to the schedule from which the subject was escaping and to the amount of training.

Animals