Ethel Tobach

Multiple [3H]imipramine binding sites in brains of male and female Fawn-Hooded and Long-Evans rats

Comparisons of high- and low-affinity [3H]imipramine binding to whole brain homogenates from adult male and female rats of the Fawn-Hooded and Long-Evans strains were performed. Most strikingly, no significant differences were observed between the two strains in any of the binding parameters, indicating that brain [3H]imipramine binding sites, which may be related to the serotonergic uptake process, appear normal in a strain of rats with serotonin platelet storage pool disease. However, a significant sex difference in high- but not low-affinity whole brain [3H]imipramine Bmax values was observed, with females of both strains having higher densities than males. The observed sex difference in densities of high-affinity [3H]imipramine binding sites necessitates further research into possible sex hormone interactions with this binding site and serotonergic transmitter systems.

Behaviour modification in infant rats

Abstract Infant rats received avoidance conditioning to shock in a straight runway beginning either at 10 or at 13 days of age. Litter mate controls received CS trials only. The number of avoidance responses was significantly affected both by age and treatment. The data are interpreted as evidence of either associative learning or stimulus sensitization. In either case, the infant rat becomes more rather than less responsive as stressful stimulation is repeated, contrary to current theoretical formulations.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF CHEMOCEPTION IN THE WISTAR (DAB) RAT: TONIC PROCESSES

The organizers of this conference called upon the participants to consider what evidence could be brought to bear on the hypothesis that “sensory systems, in addition to their informational (phasic) functions, may also have a (tonic) function in modulating the excitability of central neural mechanisms underlying patterns of neural activity and behavior.”R1 As the conference attests, the idea that sensory systems have both a tonic and phasic aspect is fairly well accepted; the conference discussion underscores that the issue before US is our understanding of the term “tonic.” The terms “tonic” and “phasic” have been applied to the stimulus, to the receptor, and to the function of various levels of organization of the nervous system (neurones, groups of neurones, organs, subsystems). A series of experiments that we have been conducting for the past 11 years has stimulated us to reexamine the concept of “tonicity” and to seek information about the connotations of the word as they have arisen not only in common speech but in physiological and behavioral literature with a view to bringing about an accommodation between our findings and the constructive aspects of the concept. The original word in the Sanskrit derived from the sound of a stretched string or a tone, as i t evolved in G~-eek.~T his meaning persists in common usage today. The connotation of tension and enduring continuity is core to the physiological definition that Bullock and Horridge give it.‘ Another ancient connotation, also in the Greek, is that of increasing the tone or giving vigor.6’ This meaning is contemporary and generally used to indicate a quality of healthfulness and beneficence. It may be said to be represented in the scientific literature in Schneirla’ss* use of tonic as contrasted with phasic as follows: “A-process: Low-threshold mechanisms which in their tonic aspects are energy-conserving and basic to species-typical development and to regular behavior, and in their phasic aspects underlie and facilitate actions of approach or seeking. Tonic: Continuous processes such as those of the A-system basic to speciestypical development and to regular behavior. W-processes: Visceral and other mechanisms with a high component of sympathetic-autonomic control, related to disruptive or tensional conditions basic to withdrawal or avoidance reactions. Phasic: Processes arising by degrees or stages through the repetition of temporary, short-lived increases in A-processes or in W-processes which are at first typically episodic.” The development-supporting, integrity-promoting connotation of this concept of “tonic” or “tonicity” is not alien to conventional and recent thinking about neural function, as evidenced in discussions of neurotrophic phenom-

Taxisin Aplysia dactylomela (Rang, 1828) to water-borne stimuli from conspecifics

Sixteen reproductively matureAplysia dactylomela were observed in a unidirectional stream under each of four conditions: sea water only, one sea hare, six sea hares, and a copulating sea hare pair. Streams containing conspecific stimulation were significantly more effective in eliciting a positive taxis towards the stimulus source. A copulating pair was not different from one or six animals in producing the approach. The sea hares showed a distinct final head orientation to six sea hares when compared with sea water only; final orientation did not differ in any other comparison.

Behavior of the Guinea Pig in the Open-Field Situation

The open-field behavior of male and female guinea pigs of heterogeneous stock and age was studied in one experiment; in a second experiment six-week-old male pigs of the Hartley strain were observed. In both experiments the open-field situation tended to inhibit elimination in the open field, and in the first experiment the open-field experience also delayed elimination in the home cage after observation in the open field. Manipulation without open-field experience did not have this effect. In both studies, the animals tended to stay in the center of the open-field enclosure as the trials progressed and there was little locomotion in the open field.

Women and Peace

DEDICATED TO THE GREAT WOMAN PEACE BUILDER: WANGARI MAATHAI, KENYA, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, 2004 Three points are made in this paper: (1) Both peace and war are gendered; (2) The participation of women in building peace and in military processes in society is often evidence of womens commitment to societal peace and justice; and (3) Womens involvement in other societal processes refutes essentialism.

Evolution of Behavior and the Comparative Method

Abstract The comparative method, that is, the discrimination of similarities and differences in the physical and social aspects of the environment, requires the concept of levels of integration and organization to be useful in the study of the evolution and development of behavior. Comparative studies based on the quasi-scientific theories of the inheritance of behavior and the predominance of genetic processes as causal in evolution and development of all species, including people, – Lorenzian ethology, Wilsonian sociobiology – overlook significant differences among species and reduce quantitative and qualitative differences in behavior to a unitary causal mechanism, which is not sufficient to explain complex behavior. Further, such theories oversimplify genetic processes and their relation to behavior. The comparative method is applicable and useful when the questions to be answered are based on stated assumptions which are testable and when the levels of the phenomena being compared are equivalent.

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Comparative psychology has a long and complex past. In its broad and inclusive sense, as the study of the behavior of animals, it goes back to Aristotle’s Historia animalium, as well as to his De anima, which dealt with animal mental life as much as it did with human.’ In its modern guise, comparative psychology undoubtedly stems from the influence of Darwin’s work, particularly his Expression of Emotions in Animals and Man, of 1872. By the time C. Lloyd Morgan had cleared away some of the early excesses, comparative psychology stood established as a science. As L. L. Adler’ points out, not only did Morgan advocate an objective science of animal behavior, he also clearly identified its problems and foreshadowed many of its current issues. In the United States general psychology, which at the time was primarily based on philosophy and physiology according to the German model, became more biologically oriented as the result of Morgan’s efforts, as well as of Jacques Loeb’s and William Jennings’ contributions. The origins of this trend can be traced. C. L. Morgan was the Lowell lecturer at Harvard in 1896. E. L. Thorndike, then at Harvard, began his animal experiments in the basement of William James’ home the next year. L. W. Kline independently established the first teaching laboratory in comparative psychology at Clark University in 1898. This was followed by the establishment of R. M. Yerkes’ laboratory at Harvard in 1899, J. B. Watson’s founding of laboratories at both Chicago (1903) and Johns Hopkins (1908), C. S. Yoakum’s founding of a laboratory at Texas (1908), and J. F. Shepard’s founding of a laboratory at Michigan the next year.3 Comparative psychology was well on its way. The proliferation of laboratories and courses in comparative psychology over the next decade made this field an accepted and essential part of general psychology, and served to expand the horizon of psychologists beyond the narrow confines of an anthropocentric approach. One important consequence was the rise of behaviorism, which evolved directly out of the animal l a b ~ r a t o r y . ~ Until the mid-twenties, contrary to opinions widely held today, the study of learning constituted only one phase in a broad spectrum of interests, which also included work on comparative aspects of development, motivation, sensory capacities, and social behavior, among other things. These contributions have been summarized by Carmichael,’ and culminated in the classic formulation of Maier and Schneirla6 and the encyclopedic three-volume treatment of Warden and colleague^.^

Neonatal rat pups’ (Long-Evans DAB) behavioral response to thermal stimuli

The development of responsiveness to three different substratal temperatures was observed in Long-Evans (DAB) rat pups at Days 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10. From Day 1 to Day 6, pups left the coldest area most quickly and the warm and hot areas equally slowly. They also were most active on the cold areas and least on the warm and hot areas. Duration of time spent on the cold areas was lowest for Days 1 and 2 but not for Day 3. By Day 8, differential responses were no longer statistically significant.

DISTANCE PERCEPTION IN THE SPINY MOUSE ACOMYS CAHIRINUS: VERTICAL JUMPING

Acomys cahirinus, a precocial muroid, that has shown precise jumping in the natural habitat, did not jump from 25 cm in a laboratory situation. To investigate this further, A. cahirinus were observed jumping from platforms at two different heights, onto different sized checkered substrates and from a visual cliff. Adult animals discriminated between platforms that were 6.4 cm and 25.4 cm above the substrate and between small and large checkered patterns on the floor. Most adult animals and neonates jumped down on the shallow side of the visual cliff. Animals developed individual patterns of jumping over a series of trials, with some jumping often, some rarely, and others jumping only from the low platform. Good distance perception was indicated when they did not jump from heights, and by their making appropriate postural adjustment when they did jump from heights and landed without mishap. Different spacing of trials indicated that height was a more effective stimulus for animals which had all four conditions on the same day, while floor pattern was more effective for animals with each of the four conditions on a separate day.