title: Quantifying nicotine's value-enhancement effect using a behavioral economic approach.
abstract: Nicotine increases the value of some reinforcing stimuli, and this effect may contribute to nicotine's widespread abuse. We aimed to quantify this effect using a behavioral economic analysis. Six Long- Evans rats were exposed to a modified observing response procedure. In this procedure, presses to one lever resulted either in food according to a variable-interval 15 s schedule or extinction; presses to a second, observing lever illuminated stimuli correlated with the schedule in effect on the food/extinction lever (i.e., conditioned reinforcers). The FR requirement on the observing lever increased across sessions. The number of presentations of the conditioned reinforcers was plotted as a function of FR value to generate a demand curve. Nicotine was then administered at a dose of 0.3 mg/kg. All demand curves were fitted to the exponential demand equation and a parameter reflecting reinforcer value was evaluated. Nicotine increased the value of the conditioned reinforcers as measured by this equation; nicotine also increased responding on the food/extinction lever. This analysis demonstrates that nicotine increases the value of conditioned reinforcers under certain conditions. The current procedure allows for a novel method of analyzing demand for conditioned reinforcers.
authors.affiliation: Brown University.
authors.forename: Rachel N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Cassidy
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dallery
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D060909:Economics, Behavioral; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D005502:Food; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine
keywords: behavioral economics; behavioral pharmacology; conditioned reinforcement; nicotine; rat