title: Incubation of saccharin craving and within-session changes in responding for a cue previously associated with saccharin.
abstract: Time-dependent increases in cue-induced sucrose seeking after forced abstinence have been described in rats with a history of sucrose self-administration, suggesting sucrose craving "incubates". In the present study, we examined whether the incubation of craving generalizes to the artificial sweetener, saccharin. Thirty-one male Long-Evans rats lever pressed for 0.3% saccharin solution 1h/day for 10 days. On either Day 1 or 30 of forced abstinence, rats responded for 1h for presentation of a tone+light cue previously presented with every saccharin delivery during self-administration training. Rats responded more during this cue-reactivity test session following 30 vs. 1 day of forced abstinence ("incubation of craving"). This result is the first demonstration of the "incubation of saccharin craving" and suggests that a post-ingestive caloric consequence of self-administration is not a necessary condition for the development of incubation of sucrose craving. We also examined the time course (within-session decreases) of active-lever responding during the 1-h cue-reactivity test session. Rats in the Day 30 group responded more than rats in the Day 1 group from the beginning of the test session. In addition, within-session decreases in responding were shallower in slope in the Day 30 than the Day 1 group. These results indicate that "incubation of saccharin craving" enhances the persistence of seeking behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe-shi, Kyoto 610-0394, Japan. Electronic address: kaoyama@mail.doshisha.ac.jp.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Grimm
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D003463:Cues; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D002149:Energy Intake; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005518:Food Preferences; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012439:Saccharin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology; D012646:Self Administration; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D013549:Sweetening Agents; D012439:Saccharin
keywords: Addiction; Craving; Incubation; Regression; Saccharin; Sucrose