Resurgence of alcohol seeking produced by discontinuing non-drug reinforcement as an animal model of drug relapse.
Findings from basic behavioral research suggest that simply discontinuing reinforcement for a recently reinforced operant response can cause the recurrence (i.e. resurgence) of a different previously reinforced response. The present experiment examined resurgence as an animal model of drug relapse. Initially, rats pressed levers to self-administer alcohol during baseline conditions. Next, alcohol self-administration was discontinued and non-drug reinforcers (food pellets) were presented contingent on an alternative response (chain pulling). Finally, when the non-drug reinforcer was discontinued, alcohol seeking recurred even though alcohol was still unavailable for lever pressing. These results suggest that simply discontinuing non-drug reinforcement for a behavior may be sufficient to produce relapse to drug seeking. The resurgence procedure could provide a method to examine environmental, pharmacological, and neurobiological factors that lead to relapse following the loss of a non-drug source of reinforcement.
Podlesnik
Christopher A
CA
Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. capodlesnik@cc.usu.edu
Jimenez-Gomez
Corina
C
Shahan
Timothy A
TA
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005502:Food; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012008:Recurrence; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology