Discriminated taste aversion with chlordiazepoxide.
Discriminative stimulus effects have been studied extensively with the two-response, food-reinforced operant procedure and more recently also with discriminated taste aversion (DTA) procedures. DTA procedures have the advantage of a more rapid discrimination training. However, the test phase, i.e., drug substitution, of the DTA procedure is more time consuming (1 test per 4 days) than the test phase of the two-response procedure (2 tests per 5 days). The present study investigated whether a DTA procedure with 2 tests per 5 days could be implemented. In addition, the specificity of the DTA procedure was investigated. Rats were trained to discriminate chlordiazepoxide (CDP, 20 mg/kg, IP) from vehicle using a discriminated taste aversion procedure. Selective suppression of saccharin consumption after CDP injections was maximal after seven CDP-LiCl pairings. In subsequent substitution tests, with 2 tests per 5 days, CDP-mimicking effects were found only for another benzodiazepine, diazepam, and for a barbiturate, pentobarbital. The results indicate that rats can be rapidly trained to discriminate CDP from vehicle in the discriminated taste aversion procedure and that the CDP-cue so produced has the same specificity as in a two-response, food-reinforced operant procedure. However, the DTA procedure has a number of drawbacks that make its advantage over the two-response procedure questionable.
Woudenberg
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Netherlands Institute for Drugs and Doping Research, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Hijzen
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D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D004327:Drinking Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D005502:Food; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide