Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Jul;21(4):323-31.
doi: 10.1097/FBP.0b013e32833b110b.

Reference place conditioning procedure with cocaine: increased sensitivity for measuring associatively motivated choice behavior in rats

Carmela M Reichel  1 , Jamie L Wilkinson, Rick A Bevins
Affiliations

Reference place conditioning procedure with cocaine: increased sensitivity for measuring associatively motivated choice behavior in rats

Carmela M Reichel et al. Behav Pharmacol. 2010 Jul.

Abstract

Place conditioning is widely used to study the conditioned rewarding effects of drugs. In the standard version, one reward (cocaine) is compared with no reward (saline). A modified variant of this task, 'reference-conditioning' procedure, compares two potentially rewarding stimuli (high vs. low cocaine dose). There has been little research on the utility of this procedure. Experiment 1 used the standard protocol with saline administered before confinement to the reference compartment of a place conditioning chamber. On alternate days, saline, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, or 20 mg/kg cocaine was administered before confinement to the opposite compartment. In experiments 2 and 3, reference-compartment saline was replaced with 5 and 7.5 mg/kg cocaine, respectively. Relative to saline, 7.5-20 mg/kg cocaine had comparable conditioned rewarding effects (i.e. similar increase in time in paired compartment). When cocaine replaced saline, there was competition at doses lower than 7.5 mg/kg. Rats that received 7.5 versus 2.5 mg/kg spent similar time in each compartment, indicating competition. Competition was not seen with 5 versus 20 mg/kg; preference was for the 20 mg/kg compartment. Experiment 4 showed that the competition at 2.5 mg/kg was not due to reward sensitization. The reference-conditioning procedure has increased the sensitivity for measuring associatively motivated choice behavior.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean preference ratios (time spent in cocaine-paired compartment/time in both end compartments) on the conditioning tests for Experiments 1 to 3. Symbols represent the mean ratio value at a particular comparison dose of cocaine. The line represents the second-order polynomial of best fit of the values for each experiment. * Significant difference from saline (p<0.05); + Significant difference from 2.5 mg/kg cocaine (p<0.05); ± Significant difference from 20 mg/kg cocaine (p<0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean preference ratios (time spent in comparison compartment/time in both end compartments) for the follow up test of sensitization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anagnostaras S, Robinson T. Sensitization to the psychomotor stimulant effects of amphetamine: modulation by associative learning. Behav Neurosci. 1996;110:1397–1414. - PubMed
    1. Bardo M, Bevins R. Conditioned place preference: what does it add to our preclinical understanding of drug reward? Psychopharmacology. 2000;153:31–43. - PubMed
    1. Bardo M, Rowlett J, Harris M. Conditioned place preference using opiate and stimulant drugs: A meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1995;19:39–51. - PubMed
    1. Barr G, Paredes W, Bridger W. Place conditioning with morphine and phencyclidine: Dose dependent effects. Life Sciences. 1985;36:363–68. - PubMed
    1. Bevins R. The reference-dose place conditioning procedure yields a graded dose-effect function. Int J Comp Psychol. 2005;18:101–11.

Publication types