Titration of duration discrimination in behavioral pharmacology and toxicology

Abstract

Daniel, S.A., and Evans, H.L.:Titration of duration discrimination in behavioral pharmacology and toxicology. Drug Dev. Res. 20:123-139, 1990. This study investigated a discrete-trial, titration duration discrimination procedure in behavioral pharmacology. Pentobarbital and d-amphetamine, measured with this procedure, selectively affected discrimination more than response tendencies. Pentobarbital also tended to affect selectively discrimination of longer durations, whereas d-amphetamine did not. Further experiments showed that 1) other algorithms for modulating stimulus duration are useful in behavioral pharmacology and toxicology, 2) threshold estimates are similar with the method of constant stimuli and the method of titration, and 3) this titration procedure permits the separate examination of drug effects upon discrimination and upon response tendencies; the fixed-interval procedure does not. Baseline variability was an important correlate of drug effects in that the endpoints with more variable baselines were also more sensitive to drugs.