Scopolamine and food-reinforced behavior in the rat

Abstract

Male hooded rats were food-deprived and trained to barpress on a fixed ratio schedule in which every 25th bar press was reinforced (FR25) with liquid food. Three 5-min nonreinforced (SA) periods were imposed at the beginning, middle, and end of the session. Under the anticholinergic drug, scopolamine, the rate of barpressing ~d not differ ~ignificantly f~om con.trol, but t~ere w.as a significant delay in the onset of barpressmg. Scopolamme-treated ammals dId not receIve remforcement until well into the FR25 period. The peripheral control drug, methyl scopolamine, did not cause a delay in the onset of barpressing. In addition, scopolamine, but not methyl scopolamine, caused a change in the topography of FR performance; the pauses typical of FR performance were frequently omitted or delayed. Finally, scopolamine, but not methyl scopolamine, caused a significant increase in the rate of barpressing during the second and third SA periods.

The Search for Meaning and its Biobehavioral Correlates: An Essay in Philosophical Anthropology

“…(The same brain-wave activity, incidentally, occurs when the person is under the influence of certain euphoriaproducing drugs, alcohol, or when undergoing an ecstatic religious experience. For a recent introductory overview of brain activities, see Plotnik & Mollenauer, 1978. ) Interestingly, the two hemispheres are associated with the two sexes.…”