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The consummatory and motivational behaviors for natural rewards following long-term withdrawal from morphine: no anhedonia but persistent maladaptive behaviors for high-value rewards

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Abstract

Rationale

The negative affective state, e.g., anhedonia, emerges after abstinence from abused drugs may be linked to the motivational processes of drug craving and relapse. Although anhedonia diminishes over time with drug abstinence, it is not yet rather explicit whether anhedonia exists or not following protracted withdrawal.

Objectives

The behavioral responses to natural rewards were examined after 2 to 3 weeks withdrawal from morphine. Male rats were pretreated with either a binge-like morphine paradigm or daily saline injection for 5 days. The consummatory and motivational behaviors for three natural rewards (sucrose solutions 4, 15, and 60%, social stimulus: male rat, and sexual stimulus: estrous female rat) were examined under varied testing conditions.

Results

The morphine-withdrawn rats significantly increased their intake of 15% sucrose solution during the 1-h consumption test and their operant responding for 15% sucrose solution under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement. When obtaining a reinforcer was associated with a 0.5 mA foot shock under a PR-punishment schedule, the morphine-withdrawn rats showed a higher performance for 60% sucrose solution. Meanwhile, the morphine-withdrawn rats displayed a higher motivation to sexual stimulus during the free-approach test and more approaching behaviors towards sexual stimulus in a conflict-based approach test (concurrent presence of reward and aversive stimulus).

Conclusions

No anhedonia-like behavior but sensitized behaviors for natural rewards were found after long-term morphine withdrawal. Notably, the morphine-withdrawn rats displayed persistent motivated behaviors for high-value rewards (60% sucrose and sexual stimulus) in the conflict tests suggesting impairments in inhibitory control in morphine-treated rats.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number KJZD-EW-L04-2) to Xigeng Zheng and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31000463) to Yunjing Bai.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China

    Yingying Li, Xigeng Zheng, Na Xu, Yue Zhang, Zhengkui Liu & Yunjing Bai

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yingying Li, Xigeng Zheng, Na Xu, Yue Zhang, Zhengkui Liu & Yunjing Bai

Authors
  1. Yingying Li
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  2. Xigeng Zheng
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  3. Na Xu
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  4. Yue Zhang
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  5. Zhengkui Liu
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  6. Yunjing Bai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yunjing Bai.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the International Review Board (IRB) of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and all experiments were conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No.8023, revised 1978).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Yingying Li and Xigeng Zheng are co-first authors.

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Li, Y., Zheng, X., Xu, N. et al. The consummatory and motivational behaviors for natural rewards following long-term withdrawal from morphine: no anhedonia but persistent maladaptive behaviors for high-value rewards. Psychopharmacology 234, 1277–1292 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4565-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4565-1

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