MacPhail R C, Crofton K M, Reiter L W
Fed Proc. 1983 Dec;42(15):3196-200.
The term environmental challenges encompasses variables that are either known or suspected to affect a baseline of behavior. Environmental challenges can be used to provide information that is important for characterizing the behavioral effects of prior exposure to a toxicant, as well as for revealing effects of the toxicant that may not otherwise be apparent in the baseline under investigation. The use of environmental challenges can be applied in studies of all known classes of behavior, and in each case is limited only to the extent that appropriate variables can be identified and manipulated. Use of environmental challenges may be particularly relevant for studies of schedule-controlled operant behavior because many of the controlling variables have already been well specified. The rationale for using environmental challenges to characterize the behavioral effects of toxicants is very similar to that for using pharmacological challenges; both represent promising new research strategies in behavioral toxicology.
术语“环境挑战”涵盖已知或疑似会影响行为基线的变量。环境挑战可用于提供重要信息，这些信息对于表征先前接触毒物后的行为影响以及揭示毒物在被研究的基线中可能不明显的影响而言至关重要。环境挑战的应用可用于所有已知行为类型的研究，并且在每种情况下仅受限于能够识别和操纵适当变量的程度。环境挑战的应用对于按时间表控制的操作性行为的研究可能尤为相关，因为许多控制变量已经得到了很好的明确。使用环境挑战来表征毒物的行为影响的基本原理与使用药理学挑战的基本原理非常相似；两者都是行为毒理学中很有前景的新研究策略。
