Behavioral toxicology is a young discipline in the United States; so young, in fact, that this is one of its first books. Behavioral questions are bound to play a major role in future scientific work and governmental decisions involving the health effects of environmental contaminants and other chemicals. This role springs from two key problems that face scientists and public agencies required to set acceptable exposure standards or to determine criteria for the toxicity of therapeutic chemicals: How do you evaluate effects that may show up only as subtle functional disturbances? And how do you de­ tect toxic effects early enough so that they may still be reversible, before they produce major damage? The contributions in this book come from a collection of scientists whose interests span a wide variety of problem areas. The focus is largely on me­ thodological issues because they represent the most immediate concern of the discipline. We expect that this collection of papers will represent a useful source book for behavioral toxicology for some time. For the past few years, the University of Rochester's Department of Radiation Biology and Biophysics has sponsored a series of international conferences on chemical toxicity, partly as a response to concern over the con­ sequences to health of the rich chemical soup in which we live. This book is based upon presentations made to the fifth of the series. Held in June, 1972, it was the first formal meeting devoted to behavioral toxicology in this country.

Inhalt

1 Carbon Monoxide and Human Functions.- Background.- Recent Work in our Laboratory.- General Methodology.- Display Experiment.- Digit Span and Arithmetic Tests.- Vigilance Experiment.- Perceptual Tracking Study.- Spatial Perception Study.- Discussion.- Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- General Discussion.- 2 The Effect of Carbon Monoxide on Time Perception, Manual Coordination, Inspection, and Arithmetic.- Experimental Method.- Results.- The Effect of CO on the Beard-Wertheim Time Discrimination Test.- The Effect of CO on Ten-Second Estimations.- The Effect of CO on Thirty-Second Estimations.- The Effect of CO on the Marquette Time Estimation Test.- Manual Coordination and Cognitive Tests.- Discussion.- Summary.- References.- General Discussion.- 3 Preliminary Studies of the Effects of Carbon Monoxide on Vigilance in Man.- Method.- Subjects.- Testing Procedure.- Chemical Procedure.- Results.- Discussion.- Summary.- References.- General Discussion.- 4 Carbon Monoxide and Human Performance: A Methodological Exploration.- Method.- Dependent Variables.- General Purpose.- Gas Exposures.- Experiment I. Simultaneous Digit-Processing and Peripheral Detection.- Behavioral Methods.- Practice.- Results.- Experiment II. The Rate Threshold of Blocking.- Results.- Experiment III. Simultaneous Digit-Processing and Double-Jump Detection.- Method.- Results.- Experiment IV. Effects of Carbon Monoxide on Eye Movements and Monitoring Performance.- Method.- Results.- Experiment V. Effects of Carbon Monoxide on Self-Paced Digit Keying.- Practice.- Results.- Concluding Remarks.- Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- General Discussion.- 5 The Comparative Effects of Hypoxic and Carbon Monoxide Hypoxia on Behavior.- Procedures.- Hypoxia.- Carbon Monoxide.- References.- General Discussion.- 6 The Application of a Computer-Controlled Time Discrimination Performance to Problems in Behavioral Toxicology.- Methods and Materials.- Subjects.- Behavioral Testing Chamber.- Computer Hardware.- Behavioral Training and Computer Software.- Time Discrimination Thresholds.- Procedure.- Results and Discussion.- Summary.- Effects of Chorpromazine on Time Discrimination.- Background.- Procedure.- Results and Discussion.- Summary.- Effects of Carbon Monoxide on Time Discrimination.- Procedure.- Results and Discussion.- Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- General Discussion.- 7 Behavioral Toxicity of Anticholinesterase Agents: Methodological, Neurochemical, and Neuropsychological Aspects.- Materials and Methods.- Subjects.- Measurement of Symptoms.- Avoidance Tests.- Measurement of Enzyme Activity.- Measurement of Brain Acetylcholine Levels.- Drug Treatments.- Acute Anticholinesterase Effects.- Dose-Response Curves and Time Course of Acute Intoxication.- Additional Methodological Considerations: Schedule Effects.- Brain Biochemistry during Acute Intoxication.- Subacute and Chronic Anticholinesterase Effects.- A Summary of Literature Data.- Chronic Treatments and Avoidance Performance.- Repeated Treatments during Avoidance Acquisitions.- Mechanisms Responsible for Tolerance.- Possible Central Actions of Enzyme Reactivations.- Cholinergic Systems and Behavior.- Human Anticholinesterase Intoxication.- General Discussion and Conclusions.- Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- General Discussion.- 8 Behavioral Toxicologic Studies of Dieldrin, DDT, and Ruelene in Sheep.- Method.- Selection of Neurotoxicants.- Experimental Animals.- Selection of Behavioral Tasks.- Sheep Behavior Studies.- Results.- Effect of Dieldrin on Heart Rate and the Extinction of a Conditioned Avoidance Response.- Effect of Dieldrin on the Performance of a Detour Maze Task.- Effect of Dieldrin on the Relearning of a Visual Discrimination.- Effect of Dieldrin on the Performance of an Auditory Signal Detection Task.- Other Behavioral Toxicologic Studies with Sheep as Subjects.- Discussion.- Summary.- Acknowledgments.- References.- General Discussion.- 9 Use of Behavioral Techniques in the Assessment of Environmental Contaminants.- Pertinent Literature.- Lashley III Maze.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- Fixed Interval Operant Conditioning.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- DRL Operant Conditioning.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- Behavioral Research Interface.- References.- General Discussion.- 10 Utilities and Limitations of Behavioral Techniques in Industrial Toxicology.- The Determination of Behavioral Performance Decrement during Inhalation Exposure to Halogenated Solvents.- Procedure.- Results.- The Complementarity of Behavioral and Pathological Methodology in the Toxicology of a New Compound.- Procedure.- Results.- The Problems and Significance of Individual Differences in Behavioral Toxicology.- Procedure.- Resuks.- Conclusions.- Technical Appendix.- Exposure Techniques.- Computer Controlled Behavioral System.- Animal Care Facilities and Experimental Routines.- References.- General Discussion.- 11 Effects of the Inhalation of Cigarette Smoke on Swimming Endurance and Avoidance Behavior in the Rat.- The Inhalation Technique.- The Effects on Swimming Endurance.- Effects on Avoidance Behavior Under Extinction Procedure.- Discussion.- Summary.- References.- General Discussion.- 12 Behavioral Teratology and Toxicology.- Basic Considerations in Behavioral Teratology.- Fetal Vulnerability.- Longitudinal Research Designs.- Cross-Fostering Procedures.- Principles in Teratology.- Literature References.- Subtle and Long-Term Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Methylmercury.- Prenatal Development.- Postnatal Development.- Summary.- References.- General Discussion.- 13 Effects of Drugs on Schedule-Controlled Behavior and Cardiovascular Function in the Squirrel Monkey.- Effects of Drugs on Schedule-Controlled Behavior.- Cardiovascular Changes Associated with Schedule-Controlled Behavior.- Measurements of Blood Pressure and Heart Rate.- Changes in Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Under Fixed-Ratio Schedules.- Effects of Drugs on Cardiovascular Function during Behavioral Experiments.- Alteration of Effects of l-Epinephrine by Chlorpromazine or Phentolamine.- Effects of Anticholinergic and Anticholinesterase Drugs on Interrelations between Cardiovascular Function and Behavior.- Acknowledgment.- References.- General Discussion.- 14 Behavioral, Biochemical, and Morphological Effects of Methamphetamine in the Rhesus Monkey.- General Methodology.- The Acute Lethal Dose of Intravenous Methamphetamine.- Acute …