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Effects of prior amphetamine exposure on approach strategy in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in rats

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Abstract

Rationale

Pavlovian conditioning with a discrete reward-predictive visual cue can elicit two classes of behaviors: “sign-tracking” (approach toward and contact with the cue) and “goal-tracking” (approach toward the site of reward delivery). Sign-tracking has been proposed to be linked to behavioral disorders involving compulsive reward-seeking, such as addiction. Prior exposure to psychostimulant drugs of abuse can facilitate reward-seeking behaviors through enhancements in incentive salience attribution. Thus, it was predicted that a sensitizing regimen of amphetamine exposure would increase sign-tracking behavior.

Objective

The purpose of these experiments was to determine how a regimen of exposure to amphetamine affects subsequent sign-tracking behavior.

Materials and methods

Male Long–Evans rats were given daily injections of d-amphetamine (2.0 mg/kg) or saline for 5 days, then given a 7-day drug-free period followed by testing in a Pavlovian conditioning task. In experiment 1, rats were presented with a visual cue (simultaneous illumination of a light and extension of a lever) located either to the left or right of a centrally located food trough. One cue (CS+) was always followed by food delivery, whereas the other (CS−) was not. In experiment 2, rats were tested in a nondiscriminative (CS+ only) version of the task.

Results

In both experiments, amphetamine-exposed rats showed less sign-tracking and more goal-tracking compared to saline controls.

Conclusions

Contrary to predictions, prior amphetamine exposure decreased sign-tracking and increased goal-tracking behavior. However, these results do support the hypothesis that psychostimulant exposure and incentive sensitization enhance behavior directed toward reward-proximal cues at the expense of reward-distal cues.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Drug Supply Program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse for kindly providing d-amphetamine sulfate, and Dr. Jim Grau and three anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. This work is supported by NIH DA018764 and the Office of the Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University (BS), NIH DA023331 (NWS), and NIH MH65728 (IAM). We have no conflicts of interest regarding the contents of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4235, USA

    Nicholas W. Simon, Ian A. Mendez & Barry Setlow

  2. Faculty of Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843–4235, USA

    Barry Setlow

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  1. Nicholas W. Simon
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Correspondence to Barry Setlow.

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Simon, N.W., Mendez, I.A. & Setlow, B. Effects of prior amphetamine exposure on approach strategy in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in rats. Psychopharmacology 202, 699–709 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-008-1353-y

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