DISRUPTION OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION IN THE RAT FOLLOWING CHRONIC D-AMPHETAMINE ADMINISTRATION - RELATIONSHIP TO SCHIZOPHRENIC ATTENTION DISORDER

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  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 17  (3) , 351-361
Abstract
In the blocking paradigm, prior training to 1 conditioned stimulus (CSA) blocked the ability to attend to a 2nd conditioned stimulus (CSB) when the 2 form a compound (CSAB) in subsequent training. Blocking is an associative process by which animals learn to ignore CSB because it contains no new information regarding the reinforcing event. Experiment 1 showed that d-amphetamine disrupted rats'' ability to ignore the irrelevant CSB. The animals responded equally to both elements of a CSAB compound following 5 daily administrations of 4 mg/kg d-amphetamine. In experiment 2 the disruption of blocking by d-amphetamine was eliminated by concomitant administration of 0.02 mg/kg haloperidol. d-Amphetamine disrupts rats'' ability to ignore repeated presentations of a single nonreinforced stimulus in the latent inhibition paradigm. The inability of amphetamine-treated animals to ignore 1 element of a dual-element compound bears some resemblance to selective attention deficits seen among [human] schizophrenic patients.