Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S R Schiff.
A mother and son had peripheral neuropathy, abnormal elevation of serum IgM, and paraproteinemia. These patients may have a familial disorder of immune regulation with antibody-mediated neuropathy or a familial neuropathy with a secondary immune response.
Following 10 daily pairings of multiple conditioned stimuli with injection of cocaine (15 mg/kg), the presentation of the stimuli alone elicited behaviors in rats similar to those induced by cocaine. The behaviors included increased duration or frequency of rearing, sniffing, head bobbing, and horizontal locomotor activity (crossing). The level of the conditioned response for several of these behaviors approximated that induced by the drug itself. The conditioned drug effect showed decay over 15 days but little extinction during 4 daily trials. Brain concentrations of the dopamine metabolites, homovanillic acid and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, were similar in the conditioned and pseudoconditioned control groups in both the caudate and mesolimbic areas. The behavioral results demonstrate that, in a classical conditioning paradigm, previously neutral stimuli can elicit behaviors similar to those induced by cocaine and that certain conditioned responses show time related decline. This agrees with the reported conditioning of amphetamine's behavioral effects but differs in terms of the action on brain dopamine turnover.
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These studies examine the possibility that drugs (amphetamine and apomorphine) affecting dopamine metabolism might show conditioning properties and tests the hypothesis that dopaminergic activity might be responsible for any conditioning seen. If environmental cues can act as conditioning signals, affecting the activity of dopaminergic neurons, conditioning factors might contribute to fluctuations in the clinical status of individuals with neurologic or psychiatric conditions influenced by alterations in dopamine metabolism or receptor function. In addition conditioning phenomena might contribute an important physiological component to the problem of stimulant addiction, in a manner similar to that suggested for the opiates (Wikler, 1961; O'Brien et al., 1977a). The relevance of these studies to the continuing attempts to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms of learning should also be emphasized.
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