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Exploration and Its Measurement

A Psychopharmacological Perspective

  • Protocol
Psychopharmacology

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 13))

Abstract

The goal of psychopharmacology is twofold: to study the behavioral effects of drugs in order to elucidate mechanisms of drug action and to use drugs as tools in order to ascertain underlying neurochemical processes mediating behavior. In investigating a particular neural system or a certain class of drugs, the most information can be gained by studying a wide range of behaviors. For example, this endeavor may encompass the analysis of motivated behavior (feeding, drinking, sexual behavior), analysis of spontaneously emitted behaviors (activity patterns, exploration), or the study of operant performance, attentional processes, learning, and memory. The present chapter focuses on the effects of drugs on one of these domains of behavior, exploration, with emphasis on the methodological issues involved in the measurement and interpretation of exploratory behavior. These issues have arisen out of theoretical considerations of exploration, and so in the first section we consider the development of the more conceptual aspects of this field. Subsequently, the problems arising in the definition and interpretation of exploratory behavior are addressed, and the methods available for its measurement are reviewed. The final sections provide examples of pharmacological manipulation of exploration, as well as speculations on the neural substrates that may mediate this behavior.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Harvard University. We would like to thank Leonard A. Levin for critical reading of the manuscript

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Ann E. Kelley

  2. Psychobiologie des Comportements Adaptatifs, Universite de Bordeaux II, Bordeaux, France

    Martine Cador & Louis Stinus

Authors
  1. Ann E. Kelley
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  2. Martine Cador
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  3. Louis Stinus
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

    Alan A. Boulton

  2. Neurochemical Research Unit, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Glen B. Baker  & Andrew J. Greenshaw  & 

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© 1989 The Humana Press Inc.

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Kelley, A.E., Cador, M., Stinus, L. (1989). Exploration and Its Measurement. In: Boulton, A.A., Baker, G.B., Greenshaw, A.J. (eds) Psychopharmacology. Neuromethods, vol 13. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-129-2:95

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-129-2:95

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-129-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-618-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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