EFFECTS OF SOME TRANQUILLIZING AND DEPRESSANT DRUGS ON CONDITIONED AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR IN MONKEYS

¹ Departments of Psychology and Pharmacology, Emory University, Georgia

The effects of several tranquillizing or depressant drugs upon conditioned avoidance behavior in cortically damaged and normal rhesus monkeys were assayed. The first phase of the experiment involved a comparison of reserpine, desmethoxyreserpine and rescinnamine at a dose level of 0.50 mgm/kgm. Desmethoxyreserpine had the most rapid onset of action, and rescinnamine the slowest. The three compounds Were qualitatively indistinguishable. The second phase was concerned with possible differential effects of desmethoxyreserpine, rescinnamine and chlorpromazine among the cortically damaged and normal groups. Chlorpromazine and rescinnamine produced no differential effects. Desmethoxyreserpine was significantly less effective in animals with lesions of frontal cortex. Chlorpromazine, rescinnamine and desmethoxyreserpine did not affect the performance of conditioned avoidance behavior differently in normal and brain-operated animals. Finally, pentobarbital (12 mgm./kgm.) produced deficit in conditioned avoidance behavior which was attributed to ataxia. Azacyclonol (20 mgm./kgm.) did not affect conditioned avoidance behavior.