Abstract
Six rats were trained to press one (food) bar under a 30-sec variable interval (VI) schedule for food pellets. Once responding had stabilized, a second (drug) bar was introduced and responding on it produced intravenous infusions of ethanol according to a fixed ratio (FR) schedule of reinforcement. Across a range of ethanol doses (1-180 mg/kg), increasing the FR requirement yielded an unsystematic picture of increases, decreases, and no change in response output on the drug bar. When, in two of these animals, cocaine hydrochloride (.5-1.5 mg/ kg) was tested subsequent to the ethanol, any increase in FR requirement was usually accompanied by some increase in response output. These findings suggest that the intravenous administration of ethanol is a relatively weak positive reinforcer in that it does not support self-administration behavior under conditions which otherwise do support the intravenous self-administration of cocaine.
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The author wishes to acknowledge the excellent assistance of Ed Perlanski throughout all phases of this experiment. Thanks are also due Val Cabral, for typing the manuscript, and E. V. Wilson, Bureau of Dangerous Drugs, Ottawa, through whose offices we obtained the cocaine hydrochloride. H. Kalant and M. A. Linseman were kind enough to read the manuscript and provide useful criticism.
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Grupp, L.A. An investigation of intravenous ethanol self-administration in rats using a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement. Psychobiology 9, 359–363 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326995
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326995