Abstract
Three groups of four chimpanzees were trained on a 20-sec delayed matching-to-sample task and then were exposed to a 152 day chronic drug regimen. Two of the chimpanzees in each group were drug naive. The other two chimpanzees in each group had experienced 45 doses of Δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ 9-THC) four months prior to the present experiment. One group of animals served as nondrug controls. A second control group received an oral dose of 1.0 mg Δ 9-THC per kilogram of body weight following each matching-to-sample session. The experimental group was given the same dose of Δ 9-THC prior to each daily session. The initial administrations of the drug before but not after each session produced a significant decrease in matching-to-sample accuracy. During the course of the chronic drug regimen, animals in the experimental group recovered very slowly from this initial impairment in matching-to-sample performance. The extent to which the experimental animals recovered seemed to depend upon their pre-experimental drug histories. The drug-experienced animals developed complete tolerance within five weeks while the previously drug-naive animals did not so do even after five months exposure to the drug. However, no residual or long-term effects were observed following termination of the chronic drug regimen.
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The authors thank Dr. Monique C. Braude for her advice and support and Dr. Wolfgang Mueller for gas chromatography analysis. Research funded by National Institute of Mental Health Contract HSM 42-71-15. Synthetic Δ 9-THC obtained by approval of the FDA-NIMH Psychotomimetic Agents Advisory Committee. The animals involved in this study were maintained in accordance with “Guide for Laboratory Animal Facilities and Care” as published by the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council.
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Ferraro, D.P., Grilly, D.M. Effects of chronic exposure to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on delayed matching-to-sample in chimpanzees. Psychopharmacologia 37, 127–138 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00437419
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00437419