Journal
BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 122, Issue 1, Pages 140-150Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.122.1.140
Keywords
reward competition; novelty seeking; sensation seeking; conditioned place preference; natural rewards
Categories
Funding
- NIDA NIH HHS [DA017086, DA018114] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Access to novelty might provide an alternative learning history that competes with conditioned drug reward. We tested this suggestion in rats using a place conditioning procedure with cocaine and novelty. In Experiment 1, rats were conditioned with cocaine to prefer one side of an apparatus. In a subsequent phase, cocaine exposure continued; however, on the unpaired side, separate group of rats had access to novel objects, cocaine injections, or saline with no objects. Pairings with novel objects or cocaine shifted a preference away from the cocaine-paired environment during drug-free and drug-challenge tests. Experiment 2 tested novelty's impact when cocaine exposure was discontinued. The identical procedures were used except drug exposure ceased on the cocaine-paired side during the second phase. Both groups expressed a preference for the cocaine compartment. This preference was maintained for rats that did not have novel objects; however, rats that experienced novelty spent similar amounts of time in both compartments during both tests. Overall, the conditioned rewarding effects of novelty competed with those of cocaine as evidenced by a change in choice behaviors motivated by drug reward.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available