Stress-induced analgesia: A performance deficit or a change in pain responsiveness?1

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Two experiments were conducted in order to determine whether a performance deficit mediated stress-induced analgesia. In the first experiment, the effects of restraint stress and task difficulty on latency to escape from a hot plate were studied in rats. Statistical analysis of escape latencies revealed that restraint and task difficulty produced significant increases in escape latencies and that the interaction of restraint × task difficulty was not significant. The second experiment examined the effects of restraint on locomotor activity in an open field. Restraint did not have an observable effect on activity counts. The results of the two experiments suggest that the observed increases in escape latencies produced by restraint reflects a change in pain responsiveness and not a performance deficit.

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    1

    We would like to thank Mr. Ralph Berman and Brett—Pat Canada Ltd. for their financial support of this research. These experiments were also supported in part from an NSERC grant to Zalman Amit.

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