title: A procedure to observe context-induced renewal of pavlovian-conditioned alcohol-seeking behavior in rats.
abstract: Environmental contexts in which drugs of abuse are consumed can trigger craving, a subjective Pavlovian-conditioned response that can facilitate drug-seeking behavior and prompt relapse in abstinent drug users. We have developed a procedure to study the behavioral and neural processes that mediate the impact of context on alcohol-seeking behavior in rats. Following acclimation to the taste and pharmacological effects of 15% ethanol in the home cage, male Long-Evans rats receive Pavlovian discrimination training (PDT) in conditioning chambers. In each daily (Mon-Fri) PDT session, 16 trials each of two different 10 sec auditory conditioned stimuli occur. During one stimulus, the CS+, 0.2 ml of 15% ethanol is delivered into a fluid port for oral consumption. The second stimulus, the CS-, is not paired with ethanol. Across sessions, entries into the fluid port during the CS+ increase, whereas entries during the CS- stabilize at a lower level, indicating that a predictive association between the CS+ and ethanol is acquired. During PDT each chamber is equipped with a specific configuration of visual, olfactory and tactile contextual stimuli. Following PDT, extinction training is conducted in the same chamber that is now equipped with a different configuration of contextual stimuli. The CS+ and CS- are presented as before, but ethanol is withheld, which causes a gradual decline in port entries during the CS+. At test, rats are placed back into the PDT context and presented with the CS+ and CS- as before, but without ethanol. This manipulation triggers a robust and selective increase in the number of port entries made during the alcohol predictive CS+, with no change in responding during the CS-. This effect, referred to as context-induced renewal, illustrates the powerful capacity of contexts associated with alcohol consumption to stimulate alcohol-seeking behavior in response to Pavlovian alcohol cues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Concordia University.
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Maddux
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Concordia University.
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lacroix
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Concordia University; nadia.chaudhri@concordia.ca.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chaudhri
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D058999:Drug-Seeking Behavior; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans