Dorsal, but not ventral, hippocampal lesions disrupt cocaine place conditioning

The environment in which cocaine is experienced becomes associated with the effects of the drug and can then elicit cocaine craving. This study examined whether the hippocampus is involved in such associations using the conditioned place preference model. Rats received bilateral lesions of the dorsal or ventral hippocampus and were then conditioned to associate a particular environment with cocaine. Following conditioning, rats with lesions of the dorsal, but not ventral, hippocampus failed to demonstrate conditioned place preference for the cocaine-associated environment. These findings suggest that the dorsal hippocampus plays a role in the association of environmental stimuli with the effects of cocaine and may have important implications for understanding craving elicited by cocaine-conditioned stimuli.