Abstract
Rationale
Previous studies in socially housed monkeys examining acquisition of cocaine self-administration under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement found that subordinate males and dominant females were more vulnerable than their counterparts.
Objectives
The present studies extended these findings in two ways: (1) to replicate the earlier study, in which female monkeys were studied after a relatively short period of social housing (~ 3 months) using cocaine-naïve female monkeys (n = 9; 4 dominant and 5 subordinate) living in well-established social groups (~ 18 months); and (2) in male monkeys (n = 3/social rank), we studied cocaine acquisition under a concurrent schedule, with an alternative, non-drug reinforcer available.
Results
In contrast to earlier findings, subordinate female monkeys acquired cocaine reinforcement (i.e., > saline reinforcement) at significantly lower cocaine doses compared with dominant monkeys. In the socially housed males, no dominant monkey acquired a cocaine preference (i.e., > 80% cocaine choice) over food, while two of three subordinate monkeys acquired cocaine reinforcement. In monkeys that did not acquire, the conditions were changed to an FR schedule with only cocaine available and after acquisition, returned to the concurrent schedule. In all monkeys, high doses of cocaine were chosen over food reinforcement.
Conclusions
The behavioral data in females suggests that duration of social enrichment and stress can differentially impact vulnerability to cocaine reinforcement. The findings in socially housed male monkeys, using concurrent food vs. cocaine choice schedules of reinforcement, confirmed earlier social-rank differences using an FR schedule and showed that vulnerability could be modified by exposure to cocaine.
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Data availability
These data have been submitted to another journal (Johnson et al., under review).
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Acknowledgements
We thank Michael Coller, Jillian Odom, and Chrystal Bragg for their outstanding technical support.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Institute of Health grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 DA017763, F31 DA053776 and T32 DA041349-06.
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Participated in research design: BNJ, MIA, and MAN; conducted experiments: BNJ and MIA; performed data analysis: MIA; wrote or contributed to the writing of the manuscript: BNJ, MIA, and MAN.
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Johnson, B.N., Allen, M.I. & Nader, M.A. Acquisition of cocaine reinforcement using fixed-ratio and concurrent choice schedules in socially housed female and male monkeys. Psychopharmacology 241, 263–274 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06483-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06483-8