Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Operant Self-Administration of Chocolate in Rats: An Addiction-Like Behavior

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
In Vivo Neuropharmacology and Neurophysiology

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 121))

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed description of an operant procedure of self-administration of a chocolate-flavored beverage in rats. Specifically, rats are trained to lever-respond—on a Fixed Ratio 10 schedule of reinforcement—for a 5-s presentation of the chocolate-flavored beverage in daily sessions. Rats quickly learn to lever-respond for the chocolate-flavored beverage and steadily maintain high levels of lever-responding (approximately 2000 lever-responses in 60-min sessions), self-administering large amounts of the chocolate-flavored beverage (60–70 ml/kg/session). This procedure can also be successfully applied to studies using several other schedules, including Progressive Ratio, extinction responding, and cue-induced reinstatement of seeking behavior. Usefulness of this procedure spans from investigations on the neurobiological bases of food-related, addiction-like behaviors to screening compounds potentially effective in overeating disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Hetherington MM, MacDiarmid JI (1993) “Chocolate addiction”: a preliminary study of its description and its relationship to problem eating. Appetite 21:233–246

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Patterson R (1993) Recovery from this addiction was sweet indeed. Can Med Assoc J 148:1028–1029

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bruinsma K, Taren DL (1999) Chocolate: food or drug? J Am Diet Assoc 99:1249–1256

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Rozin P, Levine E, Stress C (1991) Chocolate craving and liking. Appetite 17:199–212

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Benton D, Greenfield K, Morgan M (1998) The development of the attitudes to chocolate questionnaire. Person Individ Diff 24:513–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Meule A (2011) How prevalent is “food addiction”? Front Psychiatry 2:61

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Bassareo V, Di Chiara G (1999) Differential responsiveness of dopamine transmission to food-stimuli in nucleus accumbens shell/core compartments. Neuroscience 89:637–641

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Volkow ND, Wise RA (2005) How can drug addiction help us understand obesity? Nat Neurosci 8:555–560

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Parker G, Parker I, Brotchie H (2006) Mood state effects of chocolate. J Affect Disord 92:149–159

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Fowler JS, Telang F (2008) Overlapping neuronal circuits in addiction and obesity: evidence of systems pathology. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 363:3191–3200

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Barry D, Clarke M, Petry NM (2009) Obesity and its relationship to addictions: is overeating a form of addictive behavior? Am J Addict 18:439–451

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Di Chiara G (2002) Nucleus accumbens shell and core dopamine: differential role in behavior and addiction. Behav Brain Res 137:75–114

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Volkow ND, Morales M (2015) The brain on drugs: from reward to addiction. Cell 162:712–725

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Carai MAM, Colombo G, Maccioni P, Gessa GL (2006) Efficacy of rimonabant and other cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists in reducing food intake and body weight: preclinical and clinical data. CNS Drug Rev 12:91–99

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Leite CE, Mocelin CA, Petersen GO, Leal MB, Thiesen FV (2009) Rimonabant: an antagonist drug of the endocannabinoid system for the treatment of obesity. Pharmacol Rep 61:217–224

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Scherma M, Fattore L, Castelli MP, Fratta W, Fadda P (2014) The role of the endocannabinoid system in eating disorders: neurochemical and behavioural preclinical evidence. Curr Pharm Des 20:2089–2099

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Markou A, Weiss F, Gold LH, Caine SB, Schulteis G, Koob GF (1993) Animal models of drug craving. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 112:163–182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Richardson NR, Roberts DC (1996) Progressive ratio schedules in drug self-administration studies in rats: a method to evaluate reinforcing efficacy. J Neurosci Methods 66:1–11

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Bossert JM, Marchant NJ, Calu DJ, Shaham Y (2013) The reinstatement model of drug relapse: recent neurobiological findings, emerging research topics, and translational research. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 229:453–476

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Calu DJ, Chen YW, Kawa AB, Nair SG, Shaham Y (2014) The use of the reinstatement model to study relapse to palatable food seeking during dieting. Neuropharmacology 76:395–406

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Colombo G, Maccioni P, Acciaro C, Lobina C, Loi B, Zaru A, Carai MAM, Gessa GL (2014) Binge drinking in alcohol-preferring sP rats at the end of the nocturnal period. Alcohol 48:301–311

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Maccioni P, Pes D, Carai MAM, Gessa GL, Colombo G (2008) Suppression by the cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist, rimonabant, of the reinforcing and motivational properties of a chocolate-flavoured beverage in rats. Behav Pharmacol 19:197–209

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Maccioni P, Colombo G, Riva A, Morazzoni P, Bombardelli E, Gessa GL, Carai MAM (2010) Reducing effect of a Phaseolus vulgaris dry extract on operant self-administration of a chocolate-flavoured beverage in rats. Br J Nutr 104:624–628

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Zaru A, Maccioni P, Colombo G, Gessa GL (2013) The dopamine β-hydroxylase inhibitor, nepicastat, suppresses chocolate self-administration and reinstatement of chocolate seeking in rats. Br J Nutr 110:1524–1533

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Zaru A, Maccioni P, Riva A, Morazzoni P, Bombardelli E, Gessa GL, Carai MAM, Colombo G (2013) Reducing effect of a combination of Phaseolus vulgaris and Cynara scolymus extracts on operant self-administration of a chocolate-flavoured beverage in rats. Phytother Res 27:944–947

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Carai MAM, Colombo G, Gessa GL (2005) Rimonabant: the first therapeutically relevant cannabinoid antagonist. Life Sci 77:2339–2350

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Wiskerke J, Pattij T, Schoffelmeer AN, De Vries TJ (2008) The role of CB1 receptors in psychostimulant addiction. Addict Biol 13:225–238

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Maccioni P, Colombo G, Carai MAM (2010) Blockade of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor and alcohol dependence: preclinical evidence and preliminary clinical data. CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets 9:55–59

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Gamaleddin IH, Trigo JM, Gueye AB, Zvonok A, Makriyannis A, Goldberg SR, Le Foll B (2015) Role of the endogenous cannabinoid system in nicotine addiction: novel insights. Front Psychiatry 6:41

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Carroll ME, Lac ST, Nygaard SL (1989) A concurrently available nondrug reinforce prevents the acquisition or decreases the maintenance of cocaine-reinforced behavior. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 97:23–29

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Carroll ME, Lac ST (1993) Autoshaping i.v. cocaine self-administration in rats: effects of nondrug alternative reinforcers on acquisition. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 110:5–12

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Colombo G, Agabio R, Diaz G, Fà M, Lobina C, Reali R, Gessa GL (1997) Sardinian alcohol-preferring rats prefer chocolate and sucrose over ethanol. Alcohol 14:611–615

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Lenoir M, Serre F, Cantin L, Ahmed SH (2007) Intense sweetness surpasses cocaine reward. PLoS One 2:e698

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Solinas M, Goldberg SR, Piomelli D (2008) The endocannabinoid system in brain reward processes. Br J Pharmacol 154:369–383

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Gosnell BA, Levine AS (2009) Reward systems and food intake: role of opioids. Int J Obes 33:S54–S58

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Ms. Anne Farmer for language editing of the manuscript and Mr. Alessandro Capra for technical support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Institute, National Research Council of Italy, Section of Cagliari, S.S. 554, km. 4,500, 09042, Monserrato, CA, Italy

    Paola Maccioni & Giancarlo Colombo

Authors
  1. Paola Maccioni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Giancarlo Colombo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giancarlo Colombo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Athineos Philippu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Maccioni, P., Colombo, G. (2017). Operant Self-Administration of Chocolate in Rats: An Addiction-Like Behavior. In: Philippu, A. (eds) In Vivo Neuropharmacology and Neurophysiology. Neuromethods, vol 121. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6490-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6490-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6488-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6490-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation