The effects of metrazol shock on retention of the maze habit.

The effect of electroshock convulsions on the acquisition of a simple running response in the rat.

“…1 In the convulsion set up, eighty five volts 4 were passed through the brain via gauze wound electrodes clamped to the ears for an interval of approximately one half a second. 5 This produces a convulsion that has been described elsewhere. 6 As has been indicated by Page (7) and Stainbrook and Lowenbach, emotional behavior appears after the second to fifth convulsion.…”

Convulsive behavior in the rat.

“…As early as 1864 convulsions were produced in experimental animals by the injection of foreign substances (Morce, 172). With the widespread adoption of drug therapies, it was to be expected that a large number of investigators should turn to the rat in an effort to ascertain the nature and therapeutic mechanism of the convulsions, Metrazol has been the most frequent convulsant studied (e.g., 68,80,89,142), In one investigation (10S), a 1% solution of metrazol in 0.85% saline was injected intraperitoneally, with an average convulsive threshold found in one group to be about 40 mg. per kilogram body weight, and the latency of attack approximately three minutes. Tonic flexion, usually with torsion of the spine, is the most characteristic feature of the convulsion, usually followed by a clonic stage.…”

“…Allied to the modification of physiological condition through control of diet is the injection of drugs as a means of altering seizure susceptibility. There are a number of drugs, notably metrazol and insulin, which have been used as the precipitant of convulsions in the rat (68,80,141,142,174; cf. also Section II).…”

Comparative Psychopharmacology: Animal Experimental Studies on the Effects of Drugs on Behavior.

“…For example, both Metrazol (102) and insulin (25) appear to have detrimental effects upon maze behavior in the rat. Insulin produces selectively poorer retention of recent and more complex habits than of older and simpler response patterns (163), but the specific character of such relationships is far from clear in the case of Metrazol (32,78,126,165), although impairment of conditioned reflex behavior following Metrazol convulsions in the dog has been reported in at least one group of experiments (164). However, both insulin and Metrazol appear to produce similar recovery of extinguished conditioned avoidance behavior (55,56,58,94), an effect presumably related to the specific susceptibility of recently learned behavior patterns to such treatment methods.…”