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Facilitation of intravenous nicotine self-administration in rats by a motivationally neutral sensory stimulus

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Abstract

Rationale and objective

Intravenous infusions of nicotine appear to exert little primary reinforcing effects in adult rats but, instead, maintain self-administration behavior at least, in part, by increasing the intrinsic reinforcing effects of drug-paired sensory stimuli. The present study examined instead the impact of a motivationally neutral cue on self-administration.

Methods

Adult male Long-Evans rats were permitted to self-administer nicotine (0.015 mg/kg IV given over 30 s, 2 h/day) or saline presented with or without a sensory stimulus (light, white noise). Fixed and progressive ratio reinforcement schedules of nicotine reinforcement were tested. Experiment 2 determined whether noncontingent nicotine or mecamylamine (nicotinic antagonist) would induce lever pressing for either sensory stimulus. Experiment 3 tested whether the white noise stimulus alone could maintain responding after repeated pairing with self-administered nicotine. Finally, the sensory stimuli were assessed for possible aversive properties.

Results

Nicotine infusions alone were at best weakly reinforcing. The white noise stimulus, presented alone, was neither reinforcing nor aversive, whereas the white light appeared marginally reinforcing. Both stimuli, however, facilitated intravenous nicotine self-administration. Neither nicotine nor mecamylamine challenge rendered the white noise reinforcing. The white noise, after being self-administered with nicotine, failed to maintain self-administration behavior on its own.

Conclusions

Even a motivationally neutral sensory stimulus, lacking detectable primary or secondary reinforcing properties, can facilitate self-administration of nicotine. Possibly, drug-paired stimuli provide a "response marker" or serve as a temporal bridge between the operant response and drug effect. Motivationally neutral stimuli may therefore serve to isolate primary reinforcing effects of nicotine.

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Abbreviations

DA:

dopamine

FR:

fixed ratio

PR:

progressive ratio

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowship (R.E.S.), a Canadian Institutes of Health Research of Canada operating grant (MOP-10516, to P.B.SC), and a Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative ICE Team Grant (to P.B.SC). Declaration: all experiments reported here comply with the current laws of Canada, and the authors have no financial relationship with the organizations that sponsored this research.

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  1. Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G1Y6, Canada

    Robert E. Sorge, Vicki J. Pierre & Paul B. S. Clarke

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  1. Robert E. Sorge
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  2. Vicki J. Pierre
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  3. Paul B. S. Clarke
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Correspondence to Paul B. S. Clarke.

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Sorge, R.E., Pierre, V.J. & Clarke, P.B.S. Facilitation of intravenous nicotine self-administration in rats by a motivationally neutral sensory stimulus. Psychopharmacology 207, 191–200 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1647-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1647-8

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