title: Effect of learned behavior upon conditioned place preference to cathinone.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine whether first training rats to discriminate the stimulus cues produced by an indirect dopamine agonist, cathinone, would influence a subsequent test of preference. The conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm was used to evaluate the reinforcing effects of l-cathinone in four differently treated groups of rats. Half of the animals were trained to discriminate the interoceptive cues produced by 0.8 mg/kg cathinone in a two-lever, food-motivated operant task. The other animals were equally divided between two groups, one receiving saline and noncontingent reinforcements on the same schedule as those trained to discriminate cathinone; the other group, the "yoked-control" rats, received the same cathinone and saline regimen of administration as the discrimination-trained animals. Results of CPP testing indicate that cathinone produced a statistically significant conditioned place preference only in the group trained to discriminate cathinone and not in the saline or yoked control groups. Furthermore, when half of the cathinone discrimination-trained rats were pretreated with the dopamine release inhibitor CGS 10746B, the conditioned place preference to cathinone was attenuated. The results would indicate that pairing cathinone with a nonpreferred environment tended to make the rat spend more time in that environment and the amount of time spent in the cathinone-associated environment can be increased by prior discrimination training and decreased by diminished dopamine function in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown 44272.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Schechter
mesh_terms: D000470:Alkaloids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine / Q000187:drug effects; D013841:Thiazepines / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine; D013841:Thiazepines; C023665:cathinone; C049819:CGS 10746B; D004298:Dopamine