Reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior produced by heroin-predictive environmental stimuli.
The current study examined whether stimuli predictive of heroin availability were capable of inducing a relapse of drug-seeking behavior in an operant runway task. Olfactory stimuli (orange and almond food extract) served as discriminative cues about the availability (S+) or unavailability (S-) of heroin reinforcement (a single 0.1 mg/kg IV infusion) in the goal box of a straight arm runway. Following discrimination training, the running response was extinguished in the absence of the olfactory cues. On a single trial, the discriminative stimuli were then tested for their ability to reinstate running behavior prior to presentation of the heroin reinforcer. Subjects presented with the S+ on test day took significantly less time to traverse the alley than they did on the final day of extinction, while those subjects presented with the S- on test day continued to run slowly. These results demonstrate, in an animal model of drug self-administration, that environmental discriminative cues can produce a relapse in drug seeking behavior following a period of abstinence. The response-reinstating properties of the S+ odor were unaltered by pretreatment with any of three doses of haloperidol (0.0, 0.15 or 0.3 mg/kg IP), suggesting that the motivating properties of heroin-predictive stimuli or cues remain intact during dopamine receptor antagonism.
McFarland
K
K
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, USA.
Ettenberg
A
A
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D003932:Heroin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders
D003932:Heroin