Abstract
Independent groups of addicted rats were placed repeatedly in a conditioning procedure: pairings of non-rotatable activity wheels with periods of either 0–11 or 12–23 h of morphine deprivation. Controls consisted of a saline-injected group exposed to the same training stimuli and conditioning procedure, and a morphine addicted group not receiving such training. Subsequently, morphine-addicted animals were withdrawn until primary abstinence signs disappeared, and all groups were tested in unlocked wheels for differential activity resulting from reexposure to previous training environments.
Experimental groups not only were found to exhibit significantly increased wheel turning over controls, but subjects having greater morphine deprivation during training were more resistant to extinction than a low deprivation group. Motivational interpretations and methodological artifacts in designs of this nature are discussed.
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A lengthy review of the literature encompassing the area of the present study, as well as a more thorough discussion of its theoretical aspects, were included in a Ph. D. thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver, 1969, by the author.
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Trost, R.C. Differential classical conditioning of abstinence syndrome in morphine-dependent rats. Psychopharmacologia 30, 153–161 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421430
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421430