Action of a chronic administration of mescaline in dynamic behavioural situations
A Fundarò, L Molinengo, M.c. Cassone, Marco Orsetti
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry January 1, 1986 DOI: 10.1016/0278-5846(86)90042-4 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractRats given daily mescaline (4 or 10 mg/kg) showed no impairment in adapting their behavior when the schedule of food reinforcement changed from a fixed ratio to a fixed interval. However, in a reversal test where the rewarded lever was switched, chronic administration of 4 mg/kg/day made rats completely unable to switch to the newly reinforced lever. A higher dose of 9 mg/kg/day had an excitatory effect, causing rats to make more reinforced responses than unreinforced ones during the second and third reversals, exceeding the control group's performance.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Rats |
| Intervention | mescaline |
| Dose | 4 mg/kg/day, 10 mg/kg/day, 9 mg/kg/day |
| Topics | Mescaline |
| Keywords | Lever Reinforcement Conditioning Schedule |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key finding | Chronic mescaline at 4 mg/kg/day blocked rats' ability to switch to a newly reinforced lever in a reversal test, while 9 mg/kg/day had an excitatory effect that increased reinforced responses beyond controls. |
Abstract
The modifications of the rat behaviour caused by a chronic administration of mescaline were studied in two schedules of operant conditioning. In the "periodic conditioning" test, the schedule of reinforcement was changed from a fixed ratio to a fixed interval schedule. Mescaline (4 mg/kg/day and 10 mg/kg/day) caused no modification of the ability of the rat to adapt its behaviour to the new experimental situation. In the "reversal test" the contingency for food delivery was switched from one lever, where responses were previously reinforced to the other lever where responses had no programmed consequences. A chronic administration of mescaline (4 mg/kg/day) caused a total incapacity of the rat to switch to the lever which became reinforced in the reversal trial. A chronic administration of 9 mg/kg/day of mescaline had an excitatory effect and the number of reinforced responses in the II and III reversals exceeded the unreinforced responses in a measure greater than in the controls.