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Full-Text Articles in Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Sex Differences In Stress Reactivity, Brain Morphology, And Oxytocin In The Hypothalamus Of The Gray Short-Tailed Opossum (Monodelphis Domestica), Esperanza I. Zacarias, Daniela Rodriguez, Alexandra Chalons, Sasawan Heingraj, Nicole Altamirano, Joseph Rafac, John L. Vandeberg, Mario Gil Oct 2023

Sex Differences In Stress Reactivity, Brain Morphology, And Oxytocin In The Hypothalamus Of The Gray Short-Tailed Opossum (Monodelphis Domestica), Esperanza I. Zacarias, Daniela Rodriguez, Alexandra Chalons, Sasawan Heingraj, Nicole Altamirano, Joseph Rafac, John L. Vandeberg, Mario Gil

Research Colloquium

Understanding the effects of stress on behavior and cognition is important due to its impact on mental health and wellbeing (Schneiderman et al. 2005). Translational animal research can contribute to the development of new treatments that can improve therapeutic outcomes and our understanding of the neurobiology of stress. In the present study, we complement behavioral stress reactivity with immunohistochemical localization of oxytocin in the hypothalamus, a neuropeptide that regulates stress (Neumann & Slattery, 2016). Oxytocin has potential therapeutic use for mental health disorders (Neumann & Slattery, 2016), and the effects of oxytocin seem to be sexually dimorphic (Love, 2018). Using …


Effects Of Chronic Stress On Safety Processing And Physiology In The Medial Prefrontal-Amygdala-Basal Forebrain Circuit, Itamar S. Grunfeld Jun 2022

Effects Of Chronic Stress On Safety Processing And Physiology In The Medial Prefrontal-Amygdala-Basal Forebrain Circuit, Itamar S. Grunfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chronic stress increases generalization of fear to non-threatening cues, a key symptom in numerous psychiatric mood disorders. However, the mechanisms through which stress impacts safety learning remain poorly understood. To probe the relationship between stress and safety learning, this dissertation employed multiple behaviors, in conjunction with in-vivo multisite physiology during explicit safety and fear discrimination learning. In Chapter 1, I outline the role of chronic stress in driving neurological adaptations that result in generalized fear and highlight how this occurs because of impaired safety cue encoding. In Chapter 2, I show that chronic stress in the form of social defeat …


Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph Dec 2021

Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations

Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …


The Development And Evaluation Of Novel Da Transport Inhibitors And Their Effects On Effort-Related Motivation: A Review, Mukund Desibhatla May 2021

The Development And Evaluation Of Novel Da Transport Inhibitors And Their Effects On Effort-Related Motivation: A Review, Mukund Desibhatla

Honors Scholar Theses

Depression is a debilitating disorder that can cause motivational deficits such as psychomotor retardation, anergia, apathy, and fatigue. Recent research indicates that these motivational deficits, and potential pathways of therapeutic intervention, can be studied in animal models involving rats and mice. Treatments with the VMAT-2 inhibitor tetrabenazine (TBZ) and cytokine interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) can create a low-effort bias and impair effort-related motivation (Nunes et al. 2013, 2014). A number of high-affinity DA transport inhibitors such as d-amphetamine, methylphenidate, and cocaine can restore extracellular DA, albeit with the cost of undesirable effects such as high abuse liability. These observations have led researchers …


Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh Dec 2020

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.


Probability Discounting Of Lewis And Fischer 344 Rats: Strain Comparisons At Baseline And Following Acute Administration Of D-Amphetamine, Jenny E. Ozga Jan 2019

Probability Discounting Of Lewis And Fischer 344 Rats: Strain Comparisons At Baseline And Following Acute Administration Of D-Amphetamine, Jenny E. Ozga

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Risky choice can be defined as choice for a larger, uncertain reinforcer over a smaller, certain reinforcer when choosing the smaller alternative maximizes reinforcement. Risky choice is studied using various procedures in the animal laboratory; one such procedure is called probability discounting. There are many variables that contribute to risky decision-making, including biological and pharmacological determinants. The present study assessed both of these variables by evaluating dose-response effects of d-amphetamine on risky choice of Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. The probability-discounting procedure included discrete-trials choices between one food pellet delivered 100% of the time and three food …


How The Rat Turned White, Kenneth J. Shapiro Dec 2015

How The Rat Turned White, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

This is the first in a three-part series on the use of animals in psychological research. In it, I describe how animals got into laboratories in the first place, and their purpose and life there. In the second, I will describe animal model research, the strategy whereby psychologists' develop nonhuman animal models to study human psychopathology. In the concluding piece, I will present a critique of this enterprise, using original data I gathered. The three articles are based on a forthcoming book, Animal Models of Human Psychology: Science, Ethics, and Policy.


A Rodent For Your Thoughts: The Animal Model Strategy In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro Dec 2015

A Rodent For Your Thoughts: The Animal Model Strategy In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In this second of three essays, I describe how the early modern psychologists adopted the strategy of further transforming rats and other species into models of human thought, feeling, and behavior, and, particularly, of disorders of these - in effect taking "a rodent for your thoughts." In the third essay I will provide a critique and empirically-based evaluation of animal model research. Here I indicate what the model strategy in the biomedical sciences, properly understand, is intended to achieve and how, by contrast, particular models are presented to the public and funding agencies. Finally, I describe how they are utilized …


Psychology's Use Of Animals: Current Practices And Attitudes, Kenneth J. Shapiro Dec 2015

Psychology's Use Of Animals: Current Practices And Attitudes, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In this chapter, I present a psychology primer for the uninitiated, with special emphasis on psychology's uses of animals. After sketching the scope of the field generally, I review available data on present numbers and species of animals used in psychological research, level of suffering induced and current trends. I also provide several concrete examples of psychological research involving animals. Finally, the chapter concludes with a presentation of attitudes of psychologists toward animals and these practices.


The Ingrown World Of Animal Model Research In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro Dec 2015

The Ingrown World Of Animal Model Research In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In the previous essay, I described the proper function of models in science as heuristic, as a way of generating hypotheses about the actual object of study. Turning to animal models in psychology, I offered a general characterization of that enterprise using sham feeding, an animal model of the eating disorder called bulimia, as an example. In this final of three essays, I offer an evaluation of this animal model strategy that largely employs the tools of social science. I close with a recommendation and a prediction.


Use Morality As Basis For Animal Treatment, Kenneth J. Shapiro Dec 2015

Use Morality As Basis For Animal Treatment, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

No abstract provided.


State-Dependent Learning As A Function Of The Temporal Relationship Between Noncontingent Footshock And Electroconvulsive Shock, T. Scott Shutt Oct 1971

State-Dependent Learning As A Function Of The Temporal Relationship Between Noncontingent Footshock And Electroconvulsive Shock, T. Scott Shutt

All Master's Theses

Rats were given a noncontingent footshock followed at various intervals by electroconvulsive shock. Twentyfour hours later they were trained on a non-shock passive avoidance task and tested for retention 72 hours later. When the interval between NCFS and ECS was short the animals showed an amnesia which reduced as the interval was lengthened. An interval of .5 seconds produced the most pronounced amnesia and intervals greater than 10 seconds produced virtually no amnesia. The results were consistent with a state dependent retrieval failure hypothesis.


The Cathartic Effects Of Aggressive Responses Directed Toward An Inanimate Object, Timothy William Creston Aug 1971

The Cathartic Effects Of Aggressive Responses Directed Toward An Inanimate Object, Timothy William Creston

All Master's Theses

This study was intended to test the catharsis of aggression hypothesis which in part holds that aggressive responses directed towards an inanimate object will have a tension reducing effect and result in a lowering of residual hostility.


Sub-Aversive Response Contingent Foot Shock As A Positive Reinforcer, Robert Lea Fulwiler May 1971

Sub-Aversive Response Contingent Foot Shock As A Positive Reinforcer, Robert Lea Fulwiler

All Master's Theses

Forty-eight rats were divided into 8 groups; four were maintained under normal conditions and the other four under sensory deprivation and tested at o, 3, 6, and 9 days after condition institution. The response was placing the head through a hole in the operant chamber and the stimulus (0, 1.2, 4, or 12 Vac) was contingent upon the response. Analysis ot variance disclosed significant differences (p<.01) between the deprived and the non-deprived groups at days 6 and 9; and a significant interaction between deprivation condition and time of test. No differences were shown between the stimulus intensities indicating that the stimulus did not have a reinforcing effect.