Abstract
The effects of various doses of ethanol on DRL performance was examined in rats under conditions of cued and non-cued DRL tasks and under conditions of low versus high baseline performance criteria. The dose-level at which ethanol produced a significant reduction in number of responses and reinforcements interacted in a complex fashion with level of baseline performance, the cue conditions, and the order of DRL tasks. Generally, performance was impaired at a lower dose level for groups initially trained to a low criterion of DRL performance than for groups later trained to a higher criterion of DRL performance, regardless of cue condition. Further, the dose level at which ethanol impaired performance (as indicated by number of reinforcements obtained) under non-cued DRL conditions was lower than that for the cued DRL conditions, but only on the initial task where baseline DRL performance criterion was lower. Finally, the group with a higher baseline level of responding (i.e., poorer DRL performance) was more vulnerable to the disrupting effects of ethanol on this measure than groups with lower baseline response rates.
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This investigation was supported by Public Health Service Grant MH 14702 from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to the Senior Author's Project at the Oklahoma Center for Alcohol-Related Studies.
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Holloway, F.A., Wansley, R.A. Factors governing the vulnerability of DRL operant performance to the effects of ethanol. Psychopharmacologia 28, 351–362 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00422755
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00422755