Project_01 Q22 StudyTitle Probing the neural circuit mediating sensitization and compulsive checking: role of the infralimbic (IL) cortex on expression

This study (Q22) is one of a series of studies performed in the Szechtman lab at McMaster University and deposited in the FRDR public repository as a collection under the name "A Digital Library of Behavioural Performance in Standardized Conditions - Szechtman Lab Collection". This collection as a whole constitutes a big dataset containing raw data objects of video, track, and path plot records of rats exploring for 55 minutes a large testing environment in a standardized paradigm during chronic treatment with psychostimulant drugs; for details of this big dataset see, https://www.frdr-dfdr.ca/repo/collection/szechtmanlab. The historical context for study Q22 was Project_01 entitled: "Probing the neural circuit mediating sensitization and compulsive checking". Title of the experiment in Q22 was "Effect of an NMDA lesion of the infralimbic ctx on expression of compulsive checking". For this expression study, rats received our standard treatment to induce compulsive checking and then received a lesion targeted at the infralimbic cortex (IL) and the effect of this lesion on the expression of compulsive checking was measured. This experiment was run in 3 batches to refine success in lesioning IL. Study Q22 was also part of a second project, Project_09 entitled: "Probing the environmental modulation of sensitization and compulsive checking", where title of the experiment was "Effect of testing under infra-red illumination on the expression of sensitization and compulsive checking". This experiment was an add-on for batch 2 rats where at the end of prescribed testing, rats received two more trials (injections 14 and 15) to compare performance under usual illumination with performance under darkness with no visible light in the testing room.