Statement before the Subcommittee on Government Research, Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate.

Two major trends in the behavioral and social sciences that have implications for federal policy are (1) an increasingly empirical approach with emphasis on data analysis and quantification and (2) the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of these sciences. Within the federal government, health, education, welfare, defense, and social and economic planning have large behavioral and social science components that require substantial strengthening and support, through existing agencies such as the National Science Foundation, particularly in the areas of research and manpower education and training. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The identification and criticism of ideas: a new approach to the introductory course in psychology.

The objective of this course at Brown University, part of a general education program, is to discover vital concepts and ideas of long range significance, and to "analyze their origin and consistency, interpret their meaningfulness and the relationship which they bear to experience." Class enrollment was limited to 20 per section of students in the upper half of the entering class based on entrance examination score. Course conduct was discussion rather than lecture type, three hours per week, plus a two hour laboratory. An historical systematic approach emphasizing behaviorism and psychoanalysis was employed. A prospectus of the course is reproduced and four core books for student reading are indicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of acquired aversions to taste qualities in hamsters and rats.

372 golden hamsters and 120 Sprague-Dawley rats tasted 1 of 27 solutions before receiving an ip injection of apomorphine, then were tested for aversions to 4 solutions prototypic of human taste qualities: sucrose, NaCl, HCl, and quinine HCl. With most of the solutions described as sweet employed as CSs, Ss acquired an aversion to sucrose. With CSs described as either salty or sour by humans, Ss acquired an NaCl aversion in the former case or an HCl aversion in the latter case; an aversion to quinine HCl was acquired with 2 of the 3 CSs described as sour. With most of the CSs described as bitter or as having a bitter component, Ss acquired a quinine HCl aversion. Patterns of S activity evoked across 4 classes of peripheral gustatory neurons when the CSs were applied to the tongue were similar to the patterns of aversions across the 4 test stimuli for the CSs. This suggests that 4 neural channels mediate the sensations evoked by the 4 test solutions in rats and hamsters, perhaps even in human beings. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

De Gustibus.

In earlier research recording from single taste nerve fibers of the cat, it was found that they "were selective to different chemicals to varying degrees, but rarely to only 1 of the basic taste stimuli. In the cat, all receptors were stimulated by acid, some were stimulated by acid plus salt, and still others by acids plus quinine." Even though "there is evidence for increasing selectivity as one ascends the phylogenetic scale, even the primates studied have displayed a somewhat 'broadly tuned' taste system at the single unit level." Based on 63 references and 7 figures a survey is presented of major contributions to the neurophysiology of taste, especially via electrode recording techniques. Studies relating to taste discrimination, receptor specificity, peripheral nervous mechanisms and central nervous mechanisms are cited. The "question of how particular sensory messages are converted into potent determinants of behavior, not only in taste but other sensory domains, poses one of the great challenges for future physiological and behavioral research." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pheromones of hamster vaginal discharge Attraction to femtogram amounts of dimethyl disulfide and to mixtures of volatile components

The responses of normal male hamsters to the odors of several components of estrous female hamster vaginal discharge (FHVD) were quantified with a two-bottle preference test in order to clarify the role of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) in the attraction of males to females. These two compounds were originally isolated and identified in two separate, behaviorally active fractions of FHVD, one containing DMDS and the second containing DMTS. However, only authentic DMDS proved to be attractive to males; DMTS was inactive in the amounts tested (50 ng to 10 g). When smaller amounts of highly purified samples of DMTS (0.03–3.32 ng) are assayed, measurable amounts of activity are obtained. This activity of authentic DMTS is not due to any intrinsic activity of its own but rather can be ascribed to the activity of the residual DMDS (0.07%) that it contains. Highly purified samples of authentic DMDS (containing 0.03% DMTS) were again found to be attractive to males. Doses as small as 500 fg were significantly active when compared to controls. Arguments are presented suggesting that the behaviorally effective dose of DMDS is several orders of magnitude less than 500 fg. Deliberate mixtures of DMDS and DMTS failed to show any synergistic effects. In fact, at the two lowest doses examined (0.1 and 0.46 ng total sulfides), the response obtained with the mixture was smaller than that expected if DMDS were the only odorant in the solution. Therefore, DMTS seems to suppress the activity of DMDS.This work was supported by NINCDS grant NS14453, NICHHD grant HD11164, and Rockefeller Foundation grant RF70095.     

The afferent code for sensory quality.

"Many of the more recent findings in sensory psychology and physiology derive from the application of electrophysiology to the study of sensory processes." Experiments involving the taste sense and utilizing the recording and amplifying of nerve impulse traffic in sensory fibers "en route" to the brain are reviewed, and their general implications for the theory of afferent coding are discussed. An important principle of sensory coding is that "the same afferent fiber may convey different information depending upon the amount of activity in another parallel fiber." The relative rather than the absolute amount of activity in any one set of afferent fibers may determine the quality of sensation. "It is not only the activity in parallel fibers that is important, it is the relative amount of such parallel activity. Studies of the other senses indicate that these principles are not unique to taste." 21 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)