Abstract
Rats were trained to perform shuttle responses to a buzzer in four different situations: Pseudoconditioning (buzzers and footshocks presented at random), classical conditioning (buzzers and footulus paired on every trial), avoidance without stimulus pairing (buzzer-shock intervals varied at random, shocks contingent upon the nonemission of a shuttle response to the preceding buzzer), and standard two-way avoidance (buzzers paired to shocks, but the latter omitted every time there was a shuttle to the buzzer). Animals were killed immediately after the last trials and the noradrenaline and dopamine content of their hypothalamus, amygdala, caudate nucleus, and nucleus accumbens was determined. There were falls of dopamine content in the caudate and accumbens and falls of noradrenaline levels in all structures except the caudate after the pseudoconditioning test. Noradrenaline levels were normal, and dopamine levels were partially recovered, in the animals submitted to the other training situations. Thus learning factors (stimulus pairing and/or the avoidance contingency) offset the depleting influence of footshocks per se on both catecholamines in at least the structures studied.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anisman, H.: Aversively motivated behavior as a tool in psychopharmacologic analysis. In: Psychopharmacology of aversively motivated behavior, H. Anisman, G. Bignami, eds., pp. 1–62 New York: Plenum 1978a
Anisman, H.: Neurochemical changes elicited by stress: Behavioral correlates. In: Psychopharmacology of aversively motivated behavior. H. Anisman, G. Bignami, eds., pp. 119–172. New York: Plenum 1978b
Anisman, H., Waller, T. G.: Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent avoidance performance: Role of response repertoire changes. Behav. Biol. 9, 331–355 (1973)
Bignami, G.: Nonassociative explanation of behavioural changes induced by central cholinergic drugs. Acta Neurobiol. Exp. 36, 5–90 (1976)
Calderazzo, F., Calderazzo, L. S., Moschovakis, A., Izquierdo, I.: Effect of hippocampal lesions on rat shuttle responses in four different behavioral tests. Physiol. Behav. 19, 969–972 (1977)
Carlsson, A., Waldeck, B.: A fluorimetric method for the determination of dopamine (3-hydroxytyramine). Acta Physiol. Scand. 44, 293–298 (1958)
Cavalheiro, E. A., Izquierdo, I.: Effect of hippocampal and neocortical spreading depression on rat shuttle behavior in four different experimental paradigms. Physiol. Behav. 18, 1011–1016 (1977)
Drujan, B. D., Sourkes, T. L., Layne, D. S., Murphy, G. F.: The differential determination of catecholamines in urine. Can. J. Biochem. Physiol. 37, 1153–1159 (1959)
Engel, J., Carlsson, A.: Catecholamines and behavior. Curr. Dev. Psychopharmacol. 4, 1–32 (1976)
von Euler, U. S., Lishajko, F.: The estimation of catecholamines in the urine. Acta Physiol. Scand. 45, 122–132 (1959)
Frontali, M., Amorico, L., De Acetis, L., Bignami, G.: A pharmacological analysis of processes underlying differential responding: A review and further experiments with scopolamine, amphetamine, LSD-25, chlordiazepoxide, physostigmine, and chlorpromazine. Behav. Biol. 18, 1–74 (1976)
Fulginiti, A. S., Orsingher, O. A.: Effects of learning, amphetamine, and nicotine on the level and synthesis of brain noradrenaline in rats. Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. Ther. 190, 291–298 (1971)
Gorelick, D. A., Bozewicz, T. R., Bridger, W. H.: The role of catecholamines in animal learning and memory. In: Catecholamines and behavior, vol. II, A. J. Friedhoff, ed., pp. 1–30, New York: Plenum 1975
Isaacson, R. L.: The limbic system. New York: Plenum 1974
Izquierdo, I.: Possible peripheral adrenergic and cholinergic mechanisms in pseudoconditioning. Psychopharmacologia 35, 189–193 (1974a)
Izquierdo, I.: Effect on pseudoconditioning of drugs with known central nervous activity. Psychopharmacologia 38, 259–266 (1974b)
Izquierdo, I.: Relations between orienting, conditioned, and pseudoconditioned responses in the shuttle-box: A pharmacological analysis by means of LSD and dibenamine. Behav. Biol. 15, 193–205 (1975)
Izquierdo, I.: A pharmacological separation of stimulus pairing and of the response-reinforcement contingency as factors in the elicitation of shuttle responses to a buzzer in rats. Behav. Biol. 18, 75–87 (1976a)
Izquierdo, I.: Stimulus pairing and the response-reinforcement contingency as separate factors in the elicitation of shuttle responses: The effect of anticonvulsant drugs. Cienc. Cult. (Sao Paulo) 28, 1334–1336 (1976b)
Izquierdo, I., Cavalheiro, E. A.: The influence of stimulus pairing and of the shuttle-shock contingency on the performance of shuttle responses to a buzzer by weanling rats. Behav. Biol 17, 119–122 (1976a)
Izquierdo, I., Cavalheiro, E. A.: Three main factors in rat shuttle behavior: Their pharmacology and sequential entry in operation during a two-way avoidance session. Psychopharmacology 49, 145–157 (1976b)
Izquierdo, I., Elisabetsky, E.: Physiological and pharmacological dissection of the main factors in the acquisition and retention of shuttle behaviour. In: Brain mechanisms in memory and learning: From the single neuron to man, M. A. B. Brazier ed., IBRO Monograph Series, vol. IV. New York: Raven, in press, 1979
Izquierdo, I., Zand, R.: Behavioural observations in Gunn rats. Psychopharmacology 57, 155–162 (1978)
Katzev, R. D., Mills, S. K.: Strain differences in avoidance conditioning as a function of the classical CS-US contingency. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 87, 661–671 (1974)
Schütz, R. A., Nasello, A. G., Izquierdo, I.: Effect of lesions of the anterior amygdala—pyriform cortex region on rat shuttle behavior in four different experimental paradigms. Cienc. Cult. (Sao Paulo) 30, 595–599 (1978)
Skinner, B. F.: Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan 1953
Stolk, J. M., Conner, R. L., Levine, S., Brachas, J. D.: Brain norepinephrine metabolism and shock induced fighting behavior in rats: Differential effects of shock and fighting on the neurochemical response to a common footshock stimulus. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 190, 193–209 (1974)
Welch, A. S., Welch, B. L.: Failure of natural stimuli to accelerate brain catecholamine depletion after biosynthesis inhibition with α-methyltyrosine. Brain Res 9, 402–405 (1968)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schütz, R.A., Barros Schütz, M.T., Orsingher, O.A. et al. Brain dopamine and noradrenaline levels in rats submitted to four different aversive behavioral tests. Psychopharmacology 63, 289–292 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00433564
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00433564