Abstract
Exposing a rat's tail to an ambient temperature lower than that sensed by the rest of the body causes an increase in body temperature. Pretreatment with d-amphetamine causes an even greater increase in body temperature. Moreover, while control rats perceive any ambient temperature below 20° C as ‘cold’, amphetamine-treated animals only perceive ambient temperatures below 20° C as “cold”. This effect of d-amphetamine was found not only when the body temperature of the rats was 20° C, but also when the body was kept at ambient temperatures of 15°-4° C. Because this effect of d-amphetamine, i.e., shifting of the reference point among treated rats, was found in two other situations (behavioral thermoregulation and in studying the anorexic effects of d-amphetamine among rats kept at different ambient temperatures), the best explanation is that in addition to the effects of the drug upon some thermal sensory roles, it also causes a change in the value of the set point of the thermoregulatory system, and drug-treated rats perceive ambient temperatures of 10° C as ‘normal’.
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Yehuda, S., Frommer, R. Effects of d-amphetamine on the set point of the thermoregulatory system in rats. Psychopharmacology 57, 249–252 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426746
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426746