Influence of D-or DL-propranolol and chlorpromazine on habituation of phasic electrodermal responses in schizophrenia

Propranolol was found to share the properties of the racemate in facilitating habituation of the electrodermal orienting reflex in schizophrenic patients. This effect appeared independent of influences on levels of skin conductance and non-specific responses. Chlorpromazine did not normalise orienting activity. If the findings from open clinical studies that D-propranolol has anti-psychotic properties are confirmed, the fact that dextro propranolol has only minimal cardiovascular effects may give it important advantages as an anti-psychotic agent. Controlled clinical studies to prove its therapeutic action and neurobiological studies to determine its central mechanisms of action are warranted.

Mutual action of taste and olfaction

Subjects estimated the intensity of various concentrations of an odorant (ethyl butyrate), a tastant (sodium saccharin), and mixtures of the two. The question of primary interest was whether the perceived intensity of the odor-tast mixtures would be equal to, greater than , or less than the intensities of the unmixed components. The outcome approximated simple additivity: The intensity of the mixtures was only slightly less than the sum of the perceived intensities of the unmixed components. An examination of how subjects apportioned their judgments into the categories odor and taste revealed the existence of taste-smell confusions. Subjects ascribed little odor magnitude to solutions containing only sodium saccharin, but ascribed considerable taste magnitude to solutions containing only ethyl butyrate. The taste ascribed to ethyl butyrate was not due exclusively to its action on gustation since, when the nostrils were closed, as much as 80% of the "taste" disappeared. Subjects seem to resolve ambiguity regarding the locus of mutual olfactory-taste stimulation in favor of taste.