Abstract
Rationale
Nicotine discontinuation produces behaviors in rats that are congruent with anhedonia, and these symptoms may be related to the devaluation of non-nicotine reinforcers.
Objective
Four separate experiments were performed to explore the parameters surrounding nicotine-induced reinforcer devaluation.
Methods
In Experiments 1 and 2, nicotine (0.1 or 0.3 mg/kg) or 0.3 mg/kg nicotine plus 1.0 mg/kg mecamylamine was delivered to rats prior to progressive ratio (PR) schedule sessions in which sucrose was used as a reinforcer. In order to evaluate (a) reinforcer enhancement by nicotine and (b) reinforcer devaluation in the absence of nicotine, all rats experienced two PR schedule sessions per day for 10 days. Experiment 3 involved nicotine (0.3 mg/kg) and a visual stimulus in place of sucrose reinforcement. In Experiment 4, rats received nicotine (0.3 mg/kg) either before or after a single PR schedule session for 10 days.
Results
Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that reinforcer devaluation is related to the occupation of nicotinic-acetylcholine receptors. Results from Experiment 3 provide some evidence that devaluation occurs with either sucrose or visual-stimulus reinforcement. Experiment 4 demonstrates that a necessary condition for reinforcer devaluation to occur is the concurrent exposure to the reinforcer and nicotine.
Conclusions
Reinforcer devaluation in rats emerges rapidly in a progressive, orderly fashion that coincides with accumulated exposure to nicotine. These results suggest that reinforcer devaluation may be a feature of nicotine that contributes to the abuse liability of tobacco products.
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Acknowledgments
Research reported in this publication was supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number 8P20GM103449. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIGMS or NIH. The authors would like to express their gratitude to many research assistants that contributed to data acquisition: Samantha Giglio, Mallory Hyland, Michael Lavelle, Jesse Suhaka, Susan Longchamp, and Ryan Collins. Furthermore, the helpful guidance of Jim Nichols (DVM) and Angela Irvine of the Saint Michael’s College IACUC was much appreciated, and we owe our gratitude to Dr. Matthew Palmatier for sharing a software program used to conduct the experiments. We would also like to thank Dr. John Hughes of the University of Vermont for his insightful comments on the data presentation and interpretation and to the anonymous reviewers for their explicit recommendations.
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Kirshenbaum, A., Green, J., Fay, M. et al. Reinforcer devaluation as a consequence of acute nicotine exposure and withdrawal. Psychopharmacology 232, 1583–1594 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3792-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3792-y