Instrumental conditioning of heart rate in the curarized rat with varied amounts of pretraining.

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of prior discrimination training on subsequent heart-rate (HR) shaping under curare, 30 subjects were divided into three groups on the basis of amount of discrimination training (0, 2, and 4 hr.). These rats were then curarized and trained to increase or decrease HR with electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) as reward. Results indicated that the animals did learn to produce significant changes in HR in the reinforced direction, although amount of discrimination pretraining had no effect on the magnitude of these changes.

What Psychology as a Science Owes Neal Miller: The Example of His Biofeedback Research

“…A number of investigators did not accept the conclusions reached by Neal Miller and his students. Similarly, Slaughter, Hahn, and Rinaldi (1970) reported replication of the DiCara and results, but then Hahn (1974) could not replicate his own earlier findings. Perhaps even more importantly, a number of efforts to replicate the curarized rat heart rate training results failed.…”

“…There remained the demonstration of instrumental heart rate control by Trowill and Miller that had a small (but reliable) effect and the results of Hothersall and Brener (1969) and Slaughter et al (1970), but adverse publicity had been so intense that a powerful negative halo resulted. There remained the demonstration of instrumental heart rate control by Trowill and Miller that had a small (but reliable) effect and the results of Hothersall and Brener (1969) and Slaughter et al (1970), but adverse publicity had been so intense that a powerful negative halo resulted.…”

“…This is not quite the end of the story. Some of the characteristics of this self-regulatory control were explored in further work, and, among other things, it was unexpectedly found that when feedback was given from a single location on the hand, the temperature change was greatest at the feedback locus, and it progressively decreased with distance from that point, even though the subject's instruction was simply to alter the temperature of the whole hand (Slattery & Taub, 1976;Taub & School, 1978). The last part of this sequence was conducted in collaboration with Neal Miller, and that work extended the line of logical progression of Miller's experiments addressing the question of whether instrumental learning of autonomic responses without somatic mediation was possible.…”

Consciousness and Self-Regulation

“…However, not all investigators appear to have used this method. Several researchers TPporting positive findings (for example, Middaugh et al, 1975;Slaughter, Hahn, and Rinaldi, 1970;ThUll-ltull, 1971; 1974. Experiment 4) adopted the practice of adjusting respiratory parameters (usually peak inspiratory pressure) during adaptation for each rat individually, in an effort to produce a responsive heart rate.…”

“…In one respect this conclusion appears to strain the limits of plausibility. In addition to DiCara, who collected the data of the early, seminal studies (DiCara and Miller, 1968a;Miller and DiCara, 1967), several other researchers reported positive results in early research on the curarized preparation (for example, Banuazizi, 1972;Hothersall and Brener (1969);Slaughter, Hahn, and Rinaldi (1970); Table 1 above). How could spurious results have been attributed to learning by so many investigators?…”