LSD-induced alterations of locomotor patterns and exploration in rats

Abstract

A free exploration test was used to examine the effects of LSD on investigatory responding and locomotor activity in a novel environment. Rats were injected with 20–30 μg/kg LSD or saline prior to being placed in a home cage. After 10 min, a door was opened permitting entry into a larger holeboard chamber where crossovers, rearings, hole pokes, and routes of locomotion were monitored. When administered either 10 or 30 min prior to testing, LSD reduced the time spent in the holeboard chamber only during the first half of a 1-h session, resulting in a corresponding reduction in all holeboard activity measures. In the subsequent 30 min, LSD-treated rats maintained a steady level of responding, in contrast to the continual derement exhibited by controls. Despite their initial avoidance of the holeboard, LSD-treated rats made consistently longer hole pokes into floor holes and showed a more diversified pattern of locomotion than did controls throughout the 1-h session. Most striking was the failure of LSD-treated rats to establish the stereotyped excursion routes, characteristic of controls, from the home cage to various parts of the holeboard. It is suggested that LSD potentiates both neophobic (avoidance) and investigatory responses to a novel environment by retarding the rate of behavioral habituation.