Effects of chlorpromazine,secobarbital and sleep deprivation on attention in monkeys

Summary In order to develop a method for studying sustained attention in the monkey, animals were trained to perform a rapid, serially-presented visual discrimination task. Two versions of the task were developed, one dependent upon shock avoidance, the other on water reward. The effects of varying doses of chlorpromazine (0.075 to 0.6 mg/kg) and of secobarbital (5 to 25 mg/kg) were studied; the shock avoidance task was also used to measure the effects of continuous work-sleep deprivation for periods up to 48 hours.The results suggest that the task is a useful and reliable measure of attentive behavior and that there are similarities between the monkey attention task and the procedures designed to study attention in man; chlorpromazine produces more impairment in performance than secobarbital; impairment is manifest chiefly in increased errors of omission; chlorpromazine and sleep deprivation seem to share certain common effects which distinguish them from secobarbital. No marked differences in drug effects were found between the water and shock versions of the task. The relation between these findings and those obtained in human subjects was discussed.Supported by grants from the Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry (61–241) the National Science Foundation (G-21382) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH-10324). Thanks are due to Mrs. Diane D. Arenella and Mrs. Ellen B. Stechler for their efficient and devoted technical assistance.Career Development Awardee, Level II of the National Institute of Mental Health K3-MH-14,915.