Acoustical determinants of the “neurotic pattern” in rats

Morgan, Clifford T.; Gould, James

doi:10.1007/bf03393249

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The rat's auditory sensitivity increases rapidly at frequencies substantially above 8,000-10,000 cps and these high frequencies have been shown to be most effective in producing audiogenic seizures in rats. For example, Morgan and Gould (1941) found the number of audiogenic seizures to increase rapidly when a pure tone eliciting stimulus was increased in frequency. By far the greatest number of seizures was produced by tones above 12,000 cps.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instrumental escape conditioning to a low-intensity noise by rats.

Myers

1965

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instrumental escape conditioning to a low-intensity noise by rats.

Myers

1965

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The oscillator generated frequencies of 0 to 21 kc at intensities of 75 volts or higher. These intensities could be reduced by as much as 63 db by means of the attenuation box (General Radio, Type 249-D) whose impedance was matched approximately to that of the crystal loud-speaker (7).…”

Section: Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory sensitivity in the rat.

Gould¹,

Morgan²

1942

Journal of Comparative Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The problem to which this paper is addressed issues from recent studies of the behavior called the neurotic pattern (6) or audiogenic seizure (9). Soon after this behavior was first reported (6), its crucial environmental determinant was shown to be an acoustic stimulus (8, 9), and as a consequence experimental work has been directed toward the quantitative definition of the role of acoustic variables in the production of the behavior. In particular, we undertook to determine the relative effectiveness of different frequencies in instigating the seizures ( 7), and we found 20 kilocycles per second (kc) to be considerably more effective than frequencies very much below this value. We could not, in fact, obtain seizures with frequencies below 12 kc. These facts immediately suggested that the rat not only hears 20 kc but is quite sensitive to it and-that the entire audiogram of the rat is disposed, therefore, at much higher frequencies than is the audiogram of man.The literature lends some support to this suggestion, even though it contains no conclusive evidence for it. The rat, it is reported (5), is incapable of employing pure tones below 1 kc for discrimination, but it can respond quite readily to noises at that level. A finding of this kind can be plausibly explained by assuming that the animal hears high frequencies well and responds to these in the noise, but that it is. quite deaf to low frequencies. There is, in fact, evidence from another quarter (Henry, 4) to support this assumption. In order for a rat to be able to localize a tone of 1 kc, the intensity of the tone must be very great, but at 8 kc, on the other hand, the rat requires no greater intensity than man. Unfortunately frequencies above 8 kc were not employed in this work, but the trend of the results leads one to expect that, had the higher frequencies been used, the rat would have been proven to be better than man.Although there are many other studies of hearing in the rat, those mentioned seem most relevant to the question which has been raised by the study of audiogenic seizures. They do not, however, answer the question, even though they point to the hypothesis that the disposition of sensitivity at various frequencies is distinctly different in man and the rat. This hypothesis appeared well worth investigating by making careful measurements of the rat's hearing throughout an extensive range of frequencies.

show abstract

“…Meanwhile, much of Morgan's work entailed a systematic exploration of the auditory stimuli that could trigger seizures (e.g., Morgan, 1941; Morgan & Gould, 1941; Morgan & Waldman, 1941). Morgan and his associates held that because the auditory stimuli appeared critical for the occurrence of convulsive seizures, they should be called audiogenic seizures, a term that Maier never accepted.…”

Section: The Declinementioning

confidence: 99%

On publishing controversy: Norman R. F. Maier and the genesis of seizures.

Dewsbury¹

1993

American Psychologist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The award of the AAAS Thousand Dollar Prize to Norman R. F. Maier in 1938 for research on conflict-induced seizures in rats was a major event that received appreciable media coverage. However, substantial criticism of Maier's research, spearheaded by Clifford T. Morgan, eventually led to the generally accepted conclusion that the seizures were artifactual and "audiogenic." Unpublished documents have revealed, contrary to the public conclusion of this controversy, that in private Morgan conceded error. Nevertheless, whereas Morgan went on to an important career in experimental psychology. Maier left animal research. The case suggests that it is important to publish controversy and illustrates the power of those working at the core of a discipline over maverick scientists.

show abstract

Acoustical determinants of the “neurotic pattern” in rats

Cited by 11 publications

References 8 publications

Instrumental escape conditioning to a low-intensity noise by rats.

Instrumental escape conditioning to a low-intensity noise by rats.

Auditory sensitivity in the rat.

On publishing controversy: Norman R. F. Maier and the genesis of seizures.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About