Abstract
The acquisition of a one-trial step-through passive avoidance task was examined in rats following the administration of nialamide IP and dopamine (DA) or saline into the nucleus accumbens. DA-treated rats displayed impaired learning of the task as evidenced by their lower step-through latencies on a retest trial 7 days later. The specificity of this impairment was studied in a 2×2 design involving intracerebral injections prior to both training and testing trials. It was found that DA treatment prior to the training trial disrupted learning or memorization of the task but that DA did not affect performance or retrieval and did not induce state-dependent learning. These findings suggest that DA applied to the nucleus accumbens does not facilitate learning per se.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahlenius S, Engel J, Zöller M (1977) Effects of apomorphine and haloperidol on exploratory behaviour and latent learning in mice. Physiol Psychol 5:290–294
Barrett RJ, Leith NJ, Ray OS (1974) An analysis of the facilitation of avoidance acquisition produced by d-amphetamine and scopolamine. Behav Biol 11:189–203
Bignami G (1972) Facllitation of avoidance acquisition by LSD-25. Psychopharmacologia 25:146–151
Bock RD (1975) Multivariate statistical methods in behavioral research. McGraw Hill, New York
Bohdanecky Z, Jarvik ME (1967) The effect of d-amphetamine and physostigmine upon acquisition and retrieval in a single trial learning task. Arch Int Pharmacodyn Ther 170:58–65
Bracs PU, Jackson DM, Gregory P (1982) α-Methyl-p-tyrosine inhibition of a conditioned avoidance response: reversal by dopamine applied to the nucleus accumbens. Psychopharmacology 77:159–163
Bracs PU, Jackson DM, Gregory P (1984) Dopamine applied into the nucleus accumbens and discriminative avoidance in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 20:49–54
Castellano C (1974) Cocaine, pemoline and amphetamine on learning and retention of a discrimination test in mice. Psychopharmacologia 36:67–76
Castellano C, Sansone M, Renzi P, Annecker L (1973) Central stimulant drugs on avoidance behaviour in hamsters. Pharmacol Res Commun 5:287–293
Coyle JT, Wender P, Lipsky A (1973) Avoidance conditioning in different strains of rats: neurochemical correlates. Psychopharmacologia 31:25–34
Davies JA, Jackson B, Redfern PH (1974) The effect of anti-parkinsonian drugs on haloperidol-induced inhibition of the conditioned-avoidance response in rats. Neuropharmacology 12:735–740
Hearst E, Whalen RE (1963) Facilitating effects of d-amphetamine on discriminated-avoidance performance. J Comp Physiol Psychol 56:124–128
Jackson DM, Ahlenius S, Andén NE, Engel J (1977) Antagonism by locally applied dopamine into the nucleus accumbens or the corpus striatum of α-methyltyrosine-induced disruption of conditioned avoidance behaviour. J Neural Transm 41: 231–239
Jackson DM, Andén NE, Dahlström A (1975) A functional effect of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and in some other dopamine-rich parts of the rat brain. Psychopharmacologia 45:139–149
Krieckhaus EE, Miller NE, Zimmerman P (1965) Reduction of freezing behaviour and improvement of shock avoidance by d-amphetamine. J Comp Physiol Psychol 60:36–40
Kulkarni AS (1968) Facilitation of instrumental avoidance learning by amphetamine: an analysis. Psychopharmacologia 13: 418–425
Lyon M, Randrup A (1972) The dose-response effect of amphetamine upon avoidance behaviour in the rat seen as a function of increasing stereotypy. Psychopharmacologia 23:334–347
Neill DB, Herndon JG (1978) Anatomical specificity within rat striatum for the dopaminergic modulation of DRL responding and activity. Brain Res 153:529–538
Novick I, Pihl R (1969) Effect of amphetamine on the septal syndrome in rats. J Comp Physiol Psychol 68:220–225
Overton DA (1964) State-dependent or “dissociated” learning produced with pentobarbitat. J Comp Physiol Psychol 57:3–12
Overton DA (1974) Experimental methods for the study of statedependent learning. Fed Proc 33:1800–1813
Pijnenburg AJJ, van Rossum JM (1973) Stimulation of locomotor activity following injection of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens. J Pharm Pharmacol 25:1003–1005
Rao CR (1952) Advanced statistical methods in biometric research. John Wiley and Sons, New York
Sansone M, Renzi P (1970) Effects of amphetamine on shuttle-box performance of hamsters. Pharmacol Res Commun 2:355–360
Satinder KP (1971) Genotype-dependent effects of d-amphetamine sulfate and caffeine on escape-avoidance behaviour in rats. J Comp Physiol Psychol 76:359–361
Seiden LS, Carlsson A (1963) Temporary and partial antagonism by l-dopa of reserpine-induced suppression of a CAR. Psychopharmacologia 4:418–423
Seliger DL (1975) Dose-response effects of d-amphetamine on passive avoidance learning in the rat. Psychopharmacologia 44:191–193
Seliger DL (1977) Passive avoidance learning in the rat as functions of d-amphetamine dosage and shock intensity. Psychopharmacology 54:241–242
Solomon PR, Crider A, Winkelman JW, Turi A, Kamer RM, Kaplan LJ (1981) Disrupted latent inhibition in the rat with chronic amphetamine or haloperidol-induced supersensitivity: relationship to schizophrenic attention disorder. J Biol Psychiatry 16:519–537
Wada JA, Wrinch J, Hill D, McGeer PLM, McGeer EG (1963) Central aromatic amine levels and behaviour. Arch Neurol 9:69–80
Wise CD, Berger BD, Stein L (1973) Evidence of α-noradrenergic reward receptors and serotonergic punishment receptors in the rat brain. Biol Psychiatry 6:3–21
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bracs, P.U., Gregory, P. & Jackson, D.M. Passive avoidance in rats: Disruption by dopamine applied to the nucleus accumbens. Psychopharmacology 83, 70–75 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427425
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427425