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When chlorpromazine (CPZ) and lithium chloride (LiCl) are compared, the former suppresses both rat's intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) and methamphetamine (MAP)induced hyperactivity. On the other hand, the latter suppresses only MAP-induced abnormal hyperactivity but hardly suppresses a purpose-oriented ICSS associated with the reward system. Therefore, LiCl inhibits abnormal hyperactivity induced by MAP, but it does not suppress physiological motivation. Using the two types of antipsychotic drugs, the authors propose a method of combining the ICSS and locomotor activity together with its traces. These proposals are useful indicators for evaluating and developing the new antipsychotic drugs which are used clinically for psychotic patients and for understanding the drug-induced akinesia and anhedonia.

The effect of long-term methamphetamine (MAP) treatment on intracranial self-stimulation of the lateral hypotholamus and locomotor traces was assessed. An attempt was made to provide a useful animal model for understanding anhedonia, stereotypy, and reoccurrence of liability, which are analogous to symptoms of schizophrenia. The frequency of intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) as used as a measure of the animals' "hedonic-anhedonic" state. Following long-term MAP treatment (3 mg/kg), rats gradually showed stereotyped behavior, and became inactive and unresponsive to ICSS. These behavioral changes and decreased ICSS lasted several weeks after cessation of chronic MAP treatment and seemed to suggest post-MAP chronic psychosis and (or) anhedonia, two of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The traces of rat behavior affected by chronic MAP treatment were classified into three types, peripheral, mixed, and fixed, occurring in a dose-dependent manner. Reverse tolerance, similar to the reoccurrence of schizophrenic symptoms, was observed as a fixed stereotypy associated with loss of ICSS. These abnormal phenomena were suppressed by pretreatment with haloperidol. In the present study, the combination of ICSS and locomotor trace affected by chronic MAP treatment was proposed as an animal model of schizophrenia and as a useful technique for gauging the effect of neuroleptics.

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