Sensory and associative effects of LSD in classical conditioning of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) nictitating membrane response.
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 1980 DOI: 10.1037/h0077707 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Rabbits |
| Intervention | LSD |
| Dose | 30 nmol/kg |
| Topics | LSD |
| Keywords | Nictitating membrane Classical conditioning Unconditioned stimulus Stimulus psychology Sensory system Associative learning Communication Cognitive psychology Biochemistry Statistics |
| Citations | 29 |
| Key findings | LSD at 30 nmol/kg enhances classical conditioning of the nictitating membrane response in rabbits by improving sensory processing of the conditioned stimulus. |
Abstract
Three experiments were conducted to determine the effects of LSD (30 nmol/kg) on the acquisition of the rabbit's classically conditioned nictitating membrane response. Experiment 1 revealed that LSD significantly enhanced the acquisition of conditioned responses [CRs], and control groups receiving unpaired conditioned stimulus/unconditioned stimulus (CS/UCS) presentations served to identify LSD's effect to be on learning. Accordingly, subsequent efforts were directed at determining whether LSD's enhancing effects could have arisen from its altering the sensory processing of the CS and/or the UCS. In Experiment 1, unconditioned response (UCR) amplitude to a 30mA UCS was not significantly affected by LSD. Moreover, Experiment 2 revealed that LSD had no significant effect on the psychophysical functions relating UCS intensity to the frequency or amplitude of UCRs and that the drug did not affect the UCS-intensity threshold for evoking UCRs. On the other hadn, Experiment 3 revealed that LSD significantly enhanced the frequency of CRs to an extended range of CS intensities in the psychophysical function relating CS intensity to CR frequency. Furthermore, LSD lowered the CS-intensity threshold. The drug's enhancement of the sensory processing of the CS was postulated to facilitate conditioning through both learning and preformance mechanisms.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on LSD, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Human participants | 2016 | Experimental study | |
| Crystal structure of an LSD-bound human serotonin receptor | 2017 | Experimental study with structural biology and molecular dynamics simulations | |
| Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Sensitive Neuronal Units in the Midbrain Raphe Midbrain neurons containing serotonin | 1968 | Experimental study | |
| Connectome-harmonic decomposition of human brain activity reveals dynamical repertoire re-organization under LSD. Human brain | 2017 | Experimental study | |
| LSD-Assisted Psychotherapy in Patients with Terminal Cancer Cancer patients | 1973 | Experimental study | n = 60 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- Ontogeny of the behavioral effects of lysergic acid diethylamide in cats Developmental Psychobiology July 1, 1984
- Learning as the unifying mechanism of psychedelic action Journal of Psychopharmacology December 26, 2025
- The renaissance in psychedelic research: What do preclinical models have to offer. Progress in Brain Research 2018
- MDMA enhances associative and nonassociative learning in the rabbit. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior February 1994
- Enhanced learning following a single, acute dose of MDA. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior April 1993
and 1 more in the library