X-Message-Number: 18734
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 08:34:03 -0800
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Re: Footshock ???

Olaf Henny <> wrote:

	In Message #18719 Kennita Watson <>
	wrote in part:

	>>Furthermore, he added, rodent experiments show that the decrease in
	neurogenesis and the behavioral helplessness caused by inescapable
	footshock are reversed by administration of fluoxetine. <<

	What is "footshock"?

This gave me an opportunity to think about language and 
idiom, particularly idiom in construction rather than in
vocabulary.  I had never heard the term "footshock", but 
I almost automatically knew what it meant.

Is "inescapable foot shock" more understandable?  Or 
"inescapable foot shocks" (whose greater understandability
I think requires understanding of the concept of "learned 
helplessness" as implied by the word "behavioral").

In any case, I think it involves electrifying the entire 
floor.  I think protocols vary, but "whenever the mouse 
takes food" or "every <n> seconds" or "at random times"
are common ones.  In humans I think they would all be
referred to as "torture".

BTW, fluoxetine = Prozac.
-- 
May you live long and prosper,
Kennita
--
Kennita Watson          | Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
     |   None but ourselves can free our minds.
http://www.kennita.com  |           -- Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"

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