Dissociative Effect of Methamphetamine upon Exploratory Behavior in Albino Rats

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  • シロネズミの探索行動におよぼす塩酸メトアンフェタミンの分離効果
  • シロネズミ ノ タンサク コウドウ ニ オヨボス エンサン メトアンフェタミン

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the dissociative effect of methamphetamine upon the 'reponse to environmental change' in albino rats according to the method described by DEMBER (1956).<BR>Albino rats were put into an area of a T maze (consisting of a starting alley and a choice point separated from the arms with glass partitions on both sides) 15 min. per day for the consecutive 3 or 5 days and habituated to the apparatus. During the habituation sessions, one of the arms was colored black and the other white. On a test trial carried out the day after the habituation sessions, the glass partitions were removed and the arms of the maze were arranged either both black or both white (one of them changed, the other unchanged). We tested which arm the animal would choose, changed or unchanged.<BR>Half of the animals were habituated while they were drugged (M ; methamphetamine hydrochloride injected subcutaneously 30 min. before putting the animals into the starting box of the maze) and the rest in a saline state (S). On the test trial each group of methamphetamine-injected (M) and saline-injected (S) animals was further divided into two and subjected to the same or shifted drug condition so as to produce the following four groups : M-M, S-S, M-S and S-M groups.<BR>The results of Experiment I (3-day habituation sessions, 1.5 mg/kg methamphetamine hydrochloride) and Experiment II (5-day habituation sessions, 1.0 mg/kg methamphetamine hydrochloride) showed that the animals in M-M, S-S and S-M groups significantly chose the changed side of the arm, whereas the animals in M-S group randomly chose the arms. These results indicate that the transter of habituation was disturbed in M-S condition. However, in Experiment III (5-day habituation sessions, 0.5 mg/kg methamphetamine hydrochloride) the dissociation of habituation was found in S-M condition and not in M-S condition.<BR>The results of the present study show that the effect of methamphetamine on the exploratory behavior are dose related, and may suggest that a higher dose might disturb the habituation process but facilitate the response to environmental change, while a lower dose might act in the opposite direction.

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