Shock-induced hyperalgesia: IV. Generality. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Brief-moderate shock (3, 0.75 s, 1.0 mA) has opposite effects on different measures of pain, inducing antinociception on the tail-flick test while lowering vocalization thresholds to shock and heat (hyperalgesia) and enhancing fear conditioned by a gridshock unconditioned stimulus (US). This study examined the generality of shock-induced hyperalgesia under a range of conditions and explored parallels to sensitized startle. Reduced vocalization thresholds to shock and antinociception emerged at a similar shock intensity. Severe shocks (3, 25 s, 1.0 mA or 3, 2 s, 3.0 mA) lowered vocalization threshold to shock but increased vocalization and motor thresholds to heat and undermined fear conditioned by a gridshock or a startling tone US. All shock schedules facilitated startle, but only brief-moderate shock inflated fear conditioning. The findings suggest that brief-moderate shock enhances the affective impact of aversive stimuli, whereas severe shocks attenuate pain.

published proceedings

  • J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process

author list (cited authors)

  • Meagher, M. W., Ferguson, A. R., Crown, E. D., McLemore, S., King, T. E., Sieve, A. N., & Grau, J. W.

citation count

  • 32

complete list of authors

  • Meagher, MW||Ferguson, AR||Crown, ED||McLemore, S||King, TE||Sieve, AN||Grau, JW

publication date

  • July 2001