title: Anxiety conditioned to nicotine in the elevated plus-maze is time dependent.
abstract: Conditioning to the anxiogenic effects of nicotine has previously been demonstrated in the social interaction test and there was no generalization of conditioning between the social interaction and elevated plus-maze tests. Because the two tests generate distinct states of anxiety, the conditioning could have occurred to the cues associated with the test environment and/or to those associated with the type of anxiety generated by the test. The elevated plus-maze permits separation of these two factors, because quite distinct states of anxiety are generated on trials 1 and 2, whereas the apparatus cues remain the same. Rats that had been tested on day 1 in the plus-maze, 5 min after nicotine (0.45 mg/kg), showed a conditioned anxiogenic response when tested undrugged on day 2. This was shown by significantly lower percentages of open-arm entries and percentage of time spent on the open arms, compared with control groups. Thus, conditioning to apparatus cues is sufficient to mediate a conditioned anxiogenic effect. The importance of the timing of the nicotine-associated cues was demonstrated by the failure to obtain conditioned anxiogenic effects when rats were exposed to the plus-maze on day 1, 30 min after nicotine (0.45 or 0.1 mg/kg).
authors.affiliation: Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Centre for Neuroscience, GKT School of Biomedical Sciences, King's College London, Hodgkin Building, Guy's Campus, London SE1 1UL, UK. sonia.tucci@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tucci
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheeta
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Genn
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Seth
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: File
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine