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Canalization of arousal in the preweanling rat: Effects of amphetamine on aggregation with surrogate stimuli
Author(s) -
Campbell Byron A.,
Raskin Lisa A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420140206
Subject(s) - arousal , psychology , amphetamine , stimulus (psychology) , biting , developmental psychology , neuroscience , biology , cognitive psychology , ecology , dopamine
Preweanling rats, 15 days of age, were placed in an unfamiliar cage containing 1 of a variety of surrogate conspecific stimuli. The surrogate stimuli consisted of a rat‐sized aluminum tube covered with soft fluffy synthetic fur, a tanned rat pelt, felt, and an aluminum sheet. The surrogate was either maintained at ambient temperature of heated to body surface temperature (37°C). The 1st experiment revealed that both furriness (length and softness of fur) and temperature of the surrogate stimulus are important determinants of conspecific aggregation (huddling). The 2nd experiment demonstrated that preference for the soft, fluffy surrogate was not mediated by temperature conservation by showing that the same huddling behavior was obtained when ambient temperature was raised to thermoneutrality (33°C). The final experiment demonstrated that amphetamine restricted the range of surrogate stimuli that elicited huddling in the preweanling rat. The finding that amphetamine produces a steeper generalization gradient of approach to surrogate stimuli further confirms our previous hypothesis that amphetamine canalizes arousal toward salient environmental stimuli. These findings have implications for the use of amphetamines to treat hyperkinetic children.