Cardiovascular Concomitants of the Conditioned Emotional Response in the Monkey

Abstract

Flow transducers were surgically implanted on the terminal aorta of five monkeys. A classical conditioning procedure, in which a light preceded a brief shock, was superimposed upon a variable-interval schedule of food reinforcement for key pressing (three monkeys) and alternated with an avoidanceschedule of shock reinforcement for key pressing (two monkeys). Suppression of the rate of the response of key pressing and sizable increase in blood flow and heart rate during the light were obtained for all animals.