El Paradigma De Elección Con Barrera: Evaluación Del Haloperidol Con Ocho Alternativas De Respuestas Y Dos Requisitos De Traslado

Research has shown that the same doses of a dopamine antagonist that cause de suppression of lever pressing for a preferred meal, facilitate the consumption of another non-preferred meal freely available in the choice situation. This finding suggests that dopamine antagonists change the organism’s preferences in favor of alternatives that require less physical effort. These ideas were assessed in a choice situation that included eight sources of food simultaneously available, and two travel requirements, one being harder than the other. After rats responded in such situations for 30 consecutive days, four doses of haloperidol (0.04, 0.08, 0.16, & 0.24 mg/kg) were assessed (ip) over a 12-day period. None of the doses suppressed lever pressing for food, but they changed allocation of responses. At low doses (0.04 & 0.08) of haloperidol undermatching was observed, the slopes of the generalized matching low being below 1.0. High doses (0.16 & 0.24), however, produced results consistent with overmatching, the slopes were above 1.0. These findings support the idea that in choice situations dopamine antagonists affect choices and preferences.