Three groups (n = 10) of rat subjects received intraperitoneal injections of Thorazine, Elavil, and isotonic saline, respectively, prior to defensive burying testing. A defensive burying test session consisted of presenting each subject with an aversive stimulus (the discharge of a flashbulb) and recording the time each subject spent in burying behavior and the height of bedding material accumulated around the aversive stimulus during the ensuing 15 min. A retention test was conducted 24 h later. During retention sessions, subjects were simply confined to the testing chamber for 15 min. One half of the subjects in each group received retention testing under the same drug-injection condition used in the original conditioning session. The remaining subjects received retention tests under noninjection conditions. During the initial testing session, Thorazine-injected subjects spent significantly less time engaged in defensive burying and accumulated significantly less bedding material than did the salineinjected subjects. On the other hand, Elavil-injected subjects spent significantly more time burying and accumulated significantly more bedding material than did the saline-injected subjects. No significant differences, either in terms of time spent in burying or height of accumulated bedding material, were observed during retention testing.
Two groups of rats received defensive-burying testing under the effects of saline or physostigmine injection. Saline-injected animals buried more during the first (drug-state) session than did the physostigmine-injected animals. Twenty-four hours later all Ss received a retention test under the nondrug condition. Ss originally tested under the physostigmine state buried more than the saline-injected animals did.
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