Motivational Systems in Rats and Monkeys:
Are They Homologous
Introduction Page 1


Title/Abstract page

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Introduction
Page 1

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Methods
Pages 2 - 3

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Results
Pages 4 - 5 - 6

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Discussion
Pages 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

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References
Page 11

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Figures
Figures 1 - 2 - 3


The studies summarized here both began and ended in the laboratory of John P. Flynn. They began from the proposition espoused by Flynn [1974] and taken to heart by me and others among his graduate students: "It is my belief that the neural mechanism underlying aggressive behavior may be suggested, and subjected to experimentation, on the basis of close observation of the animal's actual behavior." In order to observe aggressive behavior and other related social behaviors, I made use of a technique developed earlier by Grant and Mackintosh [1963] for an ethological analysis of motor patterns of aggressive behavior in muroid rodents. Results of a study on rats using that technique have been published [Lehman and Adams, 1977]. Finally, in order to determine if results from the rat were comparable to results of a similar study on primates, I returned to Flynn's laboratory in 1978 and collaborated there with Michael Schoel in a similar sequential analysis of motor patterns of aggressive behavior between stumptail macaques. The present study compares the results from the macaques to those obtained previously from rats. A more complete and detailed account of the macaque experiments will be published [Adams and Schoel, submitted for publication].

The experimental methodology was kept simple and comparable for both the rats and the monkeys. A series of 10-min tests were made in which a dominant male was confronted in a small cage with a subordinate male. In the case of the rats, the dominant animal was the resident of the cage. In the case of the monkeys the dominant animal was housed elsewhere and transported to the test chamber, with which he was familiar from previous tests, immediately after the other animal had been placed in the cage. An ethogram method was used to record every act and posture, vocalization, and facial expression of both animals in their actual sequential relationships.

It was hoped that "close observation" of the behavior sequences of the rat and monkey would provide clues to the neural organization of their behaviors, and make possible their comparison. Much of the analysis derived from the rat data has already been published elsewhere [Adams, 1979a and b, in press; Lehman and Adams, 1977], and this paper extends that analysis to the monkey as well.

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