Autonomic and Behavioral Responses of the Rhesus Monkey to Emotional Conditioning*

ECG T-wave amplitude, muscle tension, and heart rate concomitants of conditioned suppression

“…Infrahuman studies which have been concerned with the interference theory of conditioned suppression have found disparities in the rates of acquisition and extinction of the autonomic and behavioral conditioned responses (CRs), e.g., Brady, Kelly, and. Plumlee (1969), De Toledo andBlack (1966), Parrish (1967), and Swadlow, Hosking, and Schneiderman (1971).…”

Enhancement of Conditioned Autonomic Responses in Monkeys When Preshock Signals Occasion Operant Suppression

“…During the first 40 pairings, the shock intensity was 5 mA; during the last 10, it was raised to 10 mA. To insure independence of autonomic responses and comparability of this experiment with others (Brady et al, 1969;Kelly, 1971Kelly, , 1973a, only one pairing was scheduled per session. Sessions continued twice per day, seven days per week, except for Sessions 26 through 40, which were spaced one per day alternating with meals that were signaled as usual by dimming the houselights, but during which no CS or US occurred.…”

“…Ten to fourteen days before the first session, each monkey was implanted in the femoral artery with a chronic catheter for continuous monitoring of heart rate and blood pressure. Details of the preparation were similar to those described by Brady et al (1969). Blood pressure recordings were obtained with a Sanborn strain-gauge transducer and two-channel recorder.…”

“…The actual composition of the CER on any specific occasion depends on many factors, including the extent and nature of the subject's prior experience with the warning signal, the relative speed at which the different constituent responses condition and extinguish, the species of the subject, and, as well, its ongoing behavioral activities. As examples, in nonhuman primates and dogs the suppression of appetitively maintained operant responding induced by a preshock signal is coupled with large elevations in heart rate and blood pressure (Brady, Kelly, & Plumlee, 1969;Stebbins & Smith, 1964), whereas in rabbits (Swadlow, Hosking, & Schneiderman, 1971), rats (de Toledo gc Black, 1966), and pigs (Dantzer & Baldwin, 1974) consistent pat-terns of bradycardia accompany operant suppression. So, too, "freezing" responses, intuitively associated with fright and originally proposed as an explanation of operant suppression itself (Hunt & Brady, 1951), typically occur in rats only on early trials, rarely on later ones (Millenson & Dent, 1971), and only infrequently appear in other species at any point in conditioning (Kelly, 1973a, p. 102).…”

“…Equivalent data are lacking for the appetitive operant case. However, during earlier studies dealing with preaversive and prereward conditioned suppression in rhesus monkeys (Brady et al, 1969;Kelly, 1973aKelly, , 1973b monkeys (e.g., Fenz, 1972;Miller & Caul, 1969;Ramsey, 1970;Smith & Stebbins, 1965;Snapper, Kadden, & Schoenfeld, 1971) since a variety of cardiac measures, stimulus parameters and procedures have been used. The aim of the present experiment was to compare classically conditioned cardiovascular responses elicited when rhesus monkeys were engaged in contingent responding for food and when the same subjects were not under explicit schedule control.…”