Lack of specificity of an animal behavior model for hallucinogenic drug action.

It has been proposed recently that the occurrence of drug-induced limb-flicking (LF) and abortive grooming (AG) in cats can serve as a viable animal behavior model for the actions of hallucinogens in humans. If this is the case, such behaviors should occur reliably following the administration of drugs that produce hallucinations in humans and should not occur after administration of other, non-hallucinogenic drugs--a hypothesis that was examined in the present experiment. The frequency of LF and AG were observed in 12 cats which were given a wide range of doses of the potent hallucinogen, d-LSD (0.01-0.16 mg/kg), as well as several other compounds. The results showed that three non-hallucinogenic agents which are related to LSD in various ways, the ergot derivative lisuride, the serotonin agonist, quipazine, and the dopamine agonist, apomorphine, significantly increased LF frequency. Lisuride and quipazine also caused AG. Cocaine did not elicit either behavior. Thus, it was concluded that the proposed model cannot be regarded as specific to hallucinogenic drugs. In addition, the frequency of these behaviors, as well as their reliability and robustness, were shown to be party dependent on the environment in which observation occurs.