Chlordiazepoxide and Resistance to Punishment

Abstract

South Parks Road, Oxford 0x1 3UDRats were given intermittent electric foot-shock during food-rewarded alley training.These animals persisted in running down the alley in the test phase compared to those without prior shock experience. T h e effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on this learned resistance to punishment were examined using a long and short interval between trials. I t was found that CDP abolished the effect at a long inter-trial interval, but left it unaltered if the interval was short. T h e results match those found previously with an analogous effect using non-reward. It is suggested that the effects of punishment and non-reward may be mediated by a common process, and that the benzodiazepines may act on this process. I n the test phase, food and shock were given on every trial.

Long-term partial reinforcement extinction effect and long-term partial punishment effect in a one-trial-a-day paradigm

“…The reason for focusing on the long-term effects of the PREE and the PPE in the I-trial/day procedure is SHEMERAND FELDON that this procedure has been used extensively in psychopharmacological and physiological research, particularly in investigations of the effects of minor tranquilizers (Davis, Brookes, Gray, & Rawlins, 1981;Feldon & Gray, 1981a) and lesions to the septohippocampal system . This research has demonstrated that certain treatments, such as septal lesions and benzodiazepine administration , affect differentially the PREE at 1 trial/day as compared with the multitrial procedure, and has led to theoretical suggestions about the role of the septohippocampal system in the development of behavioral tolerance to stress (Gray, Feldon, Rawlins, Owen, & McNaughton, 1978), as well as about the manner in which this system might mediate the effects of minor tranquilizers on the PREE (Feldon & Gray, 1981b).…”