PARADOXICAL EFFECTS OF d-AMPHETAMINE ON BEHAVIORAL THERMOREGULATION: POSSIBLE MEDIATION BY BRAIN DOPAMINE

¹ Laboratory of Neuroenclocrine Regulation, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, and Department of Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Doses of d-amphetamine which produce hypothermia or hyperthermia at low or high ambient temperature also interfere with the ability of the rats to utilize behavior as a mechanism for thermoregulation. Rats given d-amphetamine and placed in a cold environment (4-15°C) choose not to locate themselves beneath a heat lamp, even though body temperature falls; control rats, whose normal body temperature is maintained, elect to position themselves near the heat lamp. Conversely, hyperthermic d-amphetamine-treated rats placed in a warm environment (20-30°C) choose paradoxically to locate themselves beneath the heat lamp; control animals do not. Drugs that interfere with the interaction between dopamine and its postsynaptic receptors block the induction of paradoxical themmoregulatory behavior by d-amphetamine, while dopaminergic agonists mimic the effect of d-amphetamine.