Search results for " Operant"

Role of nitric oxide pathway in the conditioned rewarding effects of MDMA in mice.

2017

It is estimated that 2.1 million young adults used MDMA/Ecstasy in the last year in Europe. Vulnerable subjects can develop dependence after MDMA abuse but currently there does not exist an effective treatment for this disorder. The nitric oxide (NO) pathway seems to have an important role on the rewarding effects of different drugs and has been proposed as a new pharmacological treatment for psychostimulant addiction. In the present study, we intend to evaluate whether the blockade of the NO synthesis (NOS) interferes with the rewarding effects of MDMA in the conditioned preference place (CPP) paradigm in young adult male mice. Our results indicated that mice treated with 7-nitroindazole (…

Using Clicker Training and Social Observation to Teach Rats to Voluntarily Change Cages.

2018

Cage cleaning is a routinely performed husbandry procedure and is known to induce stress in laboratory rats. As stress can have a negative impact on well-being and can affect the comparability and reproducibility of research results, the amount of stress experienced by laboratory animals should be minimized and avoided when possible. Further, the direct contact between the rat and animal caretaker during the cage change bears hygiene risks and therefore possibly negatively impacts the well-being of the rats and the quality of the research. Our protocol aims to improve the routinely performed cage changing procedure. For this reason, we present a feasible protocol that enables rats to learn …

Effects of instruction on acquisition and extinction of electrodermal responses to fear-relevant stimuli.

1977

In the present study we examined the hypothesis that electrodermal responses conditioned to fear-relevant stimuli are insensitive to verbal instructions. In the first experiment, different groups of subjects were conditioned to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant control stimuli in a long interstimulus interval differential paradigm with shock as the unconditioned stimulus. Then half of the subjects were informed that no more shocks would be presented, and a number of extinction trials followed. The instruction completely abolished responding to fear-irrelevant stimuli, while leaving responses to the fear-relevant stimuli unaffected. In the second experiment, subjects were "conditioned" to fe…

Effect of adolescent exposure to WIN 55212-2 on the acquisition and reinstatement of MDMA-induced conditioned place preference.

2009

The present study employs a conditioned place preference procedure (CPP) to examine the effects of exposure to the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55212-2 (WIN) (0.1 and 0.5mg/kg) during adolescence on the reinforcing properties of +/-3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine hydrochloride (MDMA) (1.25 and 2.5mg/kg) in mice. On postnatal day (PD) 27, animals received a daily injection of the assigned treatment on 5 consecutive days, and three days later the place conditioning procedure was initiated (PD 35). The results suggest that pre-exposure to cannabinoids strengthens the properties of MDMA and favors reinstatement of the craving for the drug, which endorses the gateway hypothesis.

CB1 cannabinoid receptor-mediated aggressive behavior

2013

This study examined the role of cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1r) in aggressive behavior. Social encounters took place in grouped and isolated mice lacking CB1r (CB1KO) and in wild-type (WT) littermates. Cognitive impulsivity was evaluated in the delayed reinforcement task (DRT). Gene expression analyses of monoaminooxidase-A (MAO-A), catechol-o-methyl-transferase (COMT), 5-hydroxytriptamine transporter (5-HTT) and 5-HT1B serotonergic receptor (5HT1Br) in the median and dorsal raphe nuclei (MnR and DR, respectively) and in the amygdala (AMY) were performed by real time-PCR. Double immunohistochemistry studies evaluated COMT and CB1r co-localization in the raphe nuclei and in the cortical (AC…

Dual motor responses elicited by ethanol administered into the pVTA of rats: Implications for the development of a new strategy for alcohol-relapse t…

2015

Según la Organización Mundial de la Salud, el alcoholismo constituye uno de los principales factores de riesgo de enfermedad, discapacidad y muerte. Dada esta problemática, múltiples investigaciones se han centrado en mejorar los insatisfactorios tratamientos disponibles hasta la fecha, especialmente, en lo referente a la prevención de las recaídas durante los periodos de abstinencia, el mayor problema que a nivel clínico refiere este tipo de paciente. Sin embargo, los avances en este campo se han visto limitados debido a que las bases biológicas que subyacen a los efectos reforzantes del alcohol no se han identificado con certeza. Intentando dar respuesta a esta incógnita han surgido difer…

Color constancy in goldfish: the limits

2000

Color constancy was investigated in behavioral training experiments on colors ranging from blue to yellow, located in the color space close to Planck's locus representing the main changes in natural skylight. Two individual goldfish were trained to peck at a test field of medium hue out of a series of 13-15 yellowish and bluish test fields presented simultaneously on a black background. During training the tank in which the fish were swimming freely was illuminated with white light. Correct choices were rewarded with food. During the tests differently saturated yellow or blue illumination was used. The degree of color constancy was inferred from the choice behavior under these illuminations…

Color choice behavior in cats and the effect of changes in the color of the illuminant.

1993

Customer data collection infrastructure and Customer Experience Management:The SAQ Case Study

2017

Channel integration makes Customer Experience Management more complex and requires from retailers a regeneration of their value proposition. A longitudinal case study reveal a hierarchical sequence of operant resource triad: cultural mindsets, strategic directions for designing value propositions, and a dynamic system of capabilities for continually renewing customer experiences. The implementation of a customer data collection infrastructure, the adoption of an iterative and sequential innovation process, and the mobilization of cross-functional and multidisciplinary project teams, will help develop the firm’s dynamic system of capabilities.

Rewarding effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“Ecstasy”) in dominant and subordinate OF-1 mice in the place preference conditioning paradigm

2006

We tested the ability of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) to induce conditioned place preference (CPP) in dominant and subordinate OF-1 mice subjected to cohabitation and repeated sessions of agonistic confrontation, as well as in non-confronted mice. We selected doses of MDMA (2, 6, 10 mg/kg) previously reported to induce CPP in mice and we measured expression of c-Fos evoked by the treatments in non-confronted mice. MDMA induced c-Fos protein in several corticolimbic regions involved in drug-induced reward. Mice were exposed to brief sessions of agonistic confrontation on 5 consecutive days. Determinations of circulating hormones and drug conditioning tests were carried out on com…