[Effect of neuroleptics on the retraining of rats to change the direction of the avoidance response in a Y-shaped maze].

The ability of rats to alter the direction of avoidance response in a Y-shaped labyrinth was determined. Chlorpromazine (1 mg/kg) and haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg) facilitated re-training of the animals but produced lengthening of the latent reaction periods. Smaller doses of chlorpromazine (0.5 mg/kg) and of haloperidol (0.05 mg/kg) improved the ability of rats to alter the direction of avoidance and did not affect the latency of responses. Such an action of the neuroleptics exerted mainly on animals initially difficultly amenable to re-training.