Abstract
Rats performing on a progressive-ratio schedule that required five additional responses for each successive food reinforcement were administered d-amphetamine. The number of responses required increased until the next ratio was not completed within 15 min. The number of reinforcements obtained during a session increased with increasing doses of d-amphetamine from 0.25 mg/kg to a maximum behavioral effect at 1.0 to 2.0 mg/kg followed by a decline with higher doses. To assess the effects of hyperbaric air on the established d-amphetamine performance, the same doses were administered to rats breathing compressed air at seven times normal atmospheric pressure (7.1 ATA). In the hyperbaric condition the dose-effect function was displaced toward smaller doses such that the maximum behavioral effect was obtained at lower doses than under normal atmospheric pressure; doses that produced maximum behavioral effects under normal pressure produced a decline in reinforcements obtained.
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Supported by Naval Medical Research and Development Command, Navy Department, Research Subtask MPN 10.03.3021. The opinions and statements contained herein are the privates ones of the writer and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large.
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Thomas, J.R. Interaction between hyperbaric air and d-amphetamine effects on performance. Psychopharmacology 48, 69–73 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00423308
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00423308