Lief Lin
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Emily Jutkiewicz
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Pharmacology / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Emily Jutkiewicz, Stephen Robertson, Lief Ln
Presenter: 14
Abstract
Introduction: Food restriction increases the primary reinforcing effects of drugs. In the current study, we assessed the extent to which food restriction also increased the conditioned reinforcing properties of drug-associated cues. Aim/Hypothesis: We examined the extent to which food restriction modified the rewarding properties of a cocaine-paired stimulus across two doses of cocaine. We hypothesize that the rewarding properties of the drug-paired stimulus will increase for the food-restricted group that has undergone Paired Pavlovian conditioning. Methods: First, rats were exposed to a 7-day food restriction period, during which rats received free access or 20 g of standard chow daily and which remained in place for the entire experiment. Next, we used the New Response Acquisition procedure. According to this procedure, rats first undergo Pavlovian conditioning during which rats receive 10 infusions of cocaine (100 ug/kg/inf or 320 ug/kg/inf) and 10 presentations of a stimulus for 10 days. In the experimental group (Paired Pavlovian), the drug infusions and stimulus presentations are paired. In the control group (Random control), rats receive the same number of stimulus presentations and drug infusions but they are not delivered together. In the next phase (Acquisition), we assessed the rewarding properties of the stimulus by allowing the rat to make responses for the stimulus alone. Results: We found that responding for the stimulus was highest in food-restricted animals that were conditioned with 320 ug/kg/inf cocaine (p < 0.001, ?p2 = 0.064). Discussion: Generally, we found that food restriction enhanced responding for a cocaine-associated stimulus. Previous work in our lab has shown that food restriction didn’t increase the rewarding properties of a remifentanil-paired cue, suggesting the possibility that the ability of food restriction to enhance the rewarding properties of a drug-paired cue depends on the drug class. Presentation link
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Natural/Life Sciences
