The effects of d-amphetamine on temporal discrimination in the rat

Abstract

The effects of d-amphetamine on temporal discrimination in the rat were studied. Rats were trained on a two-manipulandum task involving the discrimination between two tones differing only in duration. d-Amphetamine (0.1–1.6 mg/kg) disrupted performance on this task, although not in an obvious dose-related manner. Lever biases were enhanced by the drug, but inconsistently among rats. Enhanced lever bias did not necessarily correlate with deterioration of performance. The drug lengthened both response latency and the performance of terminal components of the operant chain. However the characteristic pattern of response latencies produced by the two tones was not altered significantly by the drug. The results are discussed in terms of whether the drug disrupts discrimination performance by a direct effect on processes of temporal discrimination or indirectly, by its other effects on behavior.