Escape behavior under continuous reinforcement as a function of aversive light intensity

In 11 male albino rats, lever-pressing responses, maintained under a CRF escape schedule with light as the aversive stimulus, were examined at each of five intensities, viz., 2.5, 18, 105, 190, and 386 ft-C. The function relating reciprocal of latency of the escape response to aversive light intensity passed through a maximum.     

The French model at work: indication and the Jean Favreau Centre for Consultation and Treatment

The goal of this paper is to present the way in which an analyst trained in the French Model at the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and working at its policlinic, the Jean Favreau Centre for Consultation and Treatment (CCTP), approaches the question of indication. After a brief examination of Freud ’s 1905 text on indication I will discuss certain concepts, such as representation and tertiary processes, which form the basis of our listening to today’s patients. After presenting certain elements of the French Model I will then discuss a period which was a turning point in French psychoanalysis. Psychodrama, a psychoanalytically inspired treatment modality developed in France, which is useful when the capacity to represent is limited will be introduced. Two clinical illustrations of consultations at the CCTP will then follow.     

The Effect of Stress on Spontaneous Nest Leaving Behavior in the Mouse: An Improved Model of Stress-Induced Behavioral Pathology

The present experiments were conducted to develop a more sensitive and reliable model of stress-induced behavioral pathology in the mouse. Male mice were housed singly in nest cages connected to either a circular tunnel, a recreational cage or a large box with food foraging apparatus. Spontaneous nocturnal out of nest activity or food foraging behavior in these environments was continuously monitored for a two week period during which time the effects of stress were examined. It was found that both repeated restraint and aggression stress markedly and persistently reduced out of nest nocturnal activity or food foraging behavior in all 3 environments but did not alter activity in a novel open field or plus maze or food or saccharin intake in the nest cage. In a preliminary experiment the reduction in out of nest activity by stress was attenuated by prior chronic treatment with the antidepressant, desmethylimipramine. Plasma corticosterone was elevated immediately after aggression stress but reduced 5 hr after chronic aggression stress. The reduction in activity did not appear the result of increased anxiety as measured by spontaneous risk assessment behavior in the nest. It is concluded that the decrease in out of nest activity after stress in the present studies models a withdrawn behavioral state and may be due to either or both a decrease in appetitive motivation to leave the nest or an increased aversion to the external environment which does not apparently involve anxiety.