行動系列の異常とその構成

FORMULATION OF NORMAL AND ABERRANT BEHAVIOR CHAINS

I．まえおき

　誰もが知つているように，行動は鎖のように連なつてたえず変化するものである。そのなかでなにをもつて異常とすることができるであろうか。医学や生物学の常識から行動系列の異常を定義するとすれば，人間でも動物でも，ある行動の結果が個体あるいは種にとつて不適応なもの，生物的価値の減退したものになつたとき，それを異常とよぶ。

　このような価値規範は現実生活の場や博物誌的記載の段階では十分に有効であつて，私の専門とする精神医学では異常はまずこうして与えられるものである。

Formulation of behavior chains is consi-dered to be a basic requirement for under-standing aberration in behavior.

Measurements were made of behavior of mice which were kept for weeks in a circular runway, named "cloister". The cloister consisted of 20 sectors, at each of which the number of passage and the duration of stay of the animal were counted automatically. Visual and/or auditory stimuli were applied at specified points.

The following behavioral measures were derived from the measurements and relations between measures were formulated: Overall motor activity, mean and maximum velocity of running, overall responsivity, and local responsivity to stimuli.

The long-term administration of metham-phetamine to mice produced a marked aberra-tion in behavior, which was characterized by a detachment from surroundings, a loss of mo-tor drive and a tendency to fixation of beha-vior patterns. It was pointed out that this type of behavior aberration was quite similar to that of human schizophrenics.