Abstract
Male albino rats were trained and tested on a two-lever discrimination task based upon the presence or absence of d-amphetamine (1.0 mg/kg). This compound was found to produce strong discriminative cues (i.e., 90% correct choice behavior). A dose-effect function was then ascertained and the discriminative ED50 (following training with 1.0 mg/kg) was found to be 0.23 mg/kg d-amphetamine.
In order to determine the effective duration of d-amphetamine action, the interval between injection and testing was varied; it was found that the discriminative effects of the drug began to dissipate between 60 and 90 min post-injection.
In an attempt to compare the discriminative cues of other drugs with those of d-amphetamine, injections of LSD (0.04 and 0.08 mg/kg), psilocybin (0.50 and 1.0 mg/kg), THC (0.50 and 1.0 mg/kg), mescaline (5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg), and caffeine (6.0 and 20.0 mg/kg) were given during extinction. In all cases, the rats responded predominantly on the saline-related lever. Only methamphetamine (1.0 mg/kg) produced d-amphetamine-like responding.
Finally, alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT), a compound which depletes brain catecholamines (CA), was found to disrupt the d-amphetamine-saline discrimination.
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Kuhn, D.M., Appel, J.B. & Greenberg, I. An analysis of some discriminative properties of d-amphetamine. Psychopharmacologia 39, 57–66 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421458
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421458