The emergence of behavioral pharmacology

Abstract

Beginning over five decades ago, a pioneering series of studies was conducted that had a profound impact on the field of pharmacology. The impact of those studies was so forceful and sweeping that the discipline of pharmacology was modified in scope and practice by the emergence of a new discipline-behavioral pharmacology. The studies initiating this cascade of events stemmed from the Psychobiology Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and were associated with research conducted by Peter B. Dews, Roger T. Kelleher, and William H. Morse. These individuals shaped the conceptual framework, the experimental direction, as well as the principal focus, that defined and dominated the field of behavioral pharmacology for decades following their initial work in the 1950s. This article will highlight some of the main themes and implications of the work initiated by Dews, Kelleher, and Morse. In particular, I will focus on: i) schedule-controlled behavior and response rate; ii) schedules using noxious stimuli; and iii) the use of second-order schedules.