Summary
The effects of lysergic acid diethylamide and chlorpromazine have been studied on generalisation and discrimination of auditory stimuli. LSD 25 (15 μg/kg) produced a significant decrease in the rate of extinction of a conditioned avoidance response and, although not modifying the degree to which the conditioned response was generalised to other, novel auditory stimuli, elicited a marked effect on the number of tones capable of evoking barrier crossing responses. LSD 25 also appeared to block a conditioned auditory discrimination response which had been established by reinforcing only one of the tones, but failed to exert any significant effect on a similar response taught by reinforcing both tones.
Chlorpromazine (5 mg/kg) produced rapid extinction of conditioned and generalised responses without altering the gradient of generalisation. The number of tones capable of evoking avoidance responses, however, was significantly reduced. A possible explanation of these results has been discussed.
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Key, B.J. The effect of drugs on discrimination and sensory generalisation of auditory stimuli in cats. Psychopharmacologia 2, 352–363 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00404123
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00404123