The effects of extended training and acute administration of an anxiolytic on avoidance learning and intertrial responding in the Syracuse strains of rats

Male and female animals of the SHA/Bru and SLA/Bru strains of rats were given extended two-way avoidance training in the shuttle box at the rate of 30 trials per day for II days. SLA/Bru animals increased their avoidance responses (AVRs) from approximately 10 to roughly 25%, whereas animals of the SHA/Bru strain remained unchanged at approximately 100% AVRs. SHA/Bru animals made a number of intertrial responses (ITRs) early in the experiment; these declined after about 3 days to the low level made by SLA/Bru animals. Chlordiazepoxide (CDP) had no effect on AVRs in animals of either strain, and had no effect on ITRs made by animals of the SHA/Bru strain, but increased ITRs, in a dose-dependent way, in animals of the SLA/Bru strain. These results are interpreted in terms of the well-established genetic difference in emotional reactivity between animals of the two strains and in terms of genetically determined differences in sensitivity to anxiolytic drugs such as CDP.