Generalization by rats of alcohol and atropine stimulus characteristics to other drugs

Summary

Two operant procedures were used for training albino rats to make differential responses on the basis of their drug or nondrug condition. In the Conflict procedure, every fifth lever press was rewarded by a food pellet in one condition (drug for half the animals, saline for the other half) and was punished by electric shock in the other condition. For 6 animals the drug condition was ethyl alcohol (1200 mg/kg of a 10% v/v solution in isotonic saline, injected i.p. 5 min before the start of the session); for 4 animals the drug condition was atropine sulfate (10 mg/kg in 1 ml/kg saline injected i.p. 30 min before the start of the session). In the Choice procedure, food reward was obtained by the first press on one of two levers at a variable time interval, averaging one minute, after the prior food reward. The rewarded lever depended on the animal's drug or saline condition (alcohol for 7 animals, atropine for 5 animals, administered as in the Conflict procedure); the same right-hand or left left-hand lever was rewarded in the drug condition for half the animals and in the saline condition for the other half.

The response associated with 1200 mg/kg alcohol was generally elicited in tests with sufficiently high doses of pentobarbital sodium (10–20 mg/kg), chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride (10–15 mg/kg) and chloral hydrate (90–120 mg/kg, administered orally). Lower doses of these compounds, and of alcohol, were perceived as less similar to the alcohol and therefore more similar to the saline condition. Substantial doses of chlorpromazine hydrochloride (2 mg/kg) and d-amphetamine sulfate (1 mg/kg) also were perceived as similar to the saline condition. The response associated with a centrally acting anticholinergic (10 mg/kg atropine) was generally elicited in tests with several doses of scopolamine hydrobromide (0.06 to 1.0 mg/kg) and of atropine (2.5–5.0 mg/kg). The saline response was elicited by a lower dose of scopolamine (0.03 mg/kg) and by a peripherally-acting anticholinergic, atropine methyl bromide, at a dose (5 mg/kg) equimolar with 10 mg/kg atropine sulfate. The same results, including closely similar ED₅₀ doses, were generally found with the Conflict and Choice procedures, despite the differences between them in the motivational basis for the differential drug and nondrug responses. The similarities and dissimilarities among these compounds in perceived stimulus characteristics also correspond closely with those reported by Overton (1966) with a locomotor shock-escape procedure in tests which were generally limited to a single high dose of each drug.