Abstract
The dose-dependent effects of morphine on odor conditioning in rats were examined in two experiments. Subjects received one odor paired with either a low dose of morphine (0.5 mg/kg; Experiment 1A) or a high dose of morphine (10.0 mg/kg; Experiment 1B), alternating with another odor paired with saline. In Experiment 1A, subjects spent significantly more time over the morphine-paired odor than over the saline-paired odor in a spatial-odor preference test (odor preference). In Experiment 1B, subjects spent significantly less time over the morphine-paired odor than over the saline-paired odor (odor aversion). In Experiment 2, pairing an odor with a high dose of morphine (10.0 mg/kg) produced a conditioned analgesic response, measured by paw-lick latency. These studies demonstrate that an odor may serve as an effective stimulus to which the motivational and analgesic effects of morphine can be conditioned.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alberts, J. R. (1984). Sensory-perceptual development in the Norway rat: A view toward comparative studies. In R. Kail & N. E. Spear (Eds.), Comparative perspectives on the development of memory (pp. 65–101). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Baker, T. B., & Tiffany, S. T. (1985). Morphine tolerance as habituation. Psychological Review, 92, 78–108.
Bardo, M. T., Miller, J. S., & Neisewander, J. L. (1984). Conditioned place preference with morphine: Extinction of the reinforcing CR. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior, 21, 545–549.
Bardo, M. T., Miller, J. S., & Risner, M. E. (1984). Opiate receptor supersensitivity produced by chronic naloxone treatment: Dissociation of morphine-induced antinoception and conditioned taste aversion. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior, 21, 591–597.
Bardo, M. T., & Valone, J. M. (1993). Morphine-conditioned analgesia using a taste cue: Dissociation of taste aversion and analgesia. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Blander, A., Hunt, T., Blair, R., & Amit, Z. (1984). Conditioned place preference: An evaluation of morphine’s positive reinforcing properties. Psychopharmacology, 84, 124–127.
Cappell, H., & LeBlanc, A. E. (1973). Aversive conditioning by psychoactive drugs: Effects of morphine, alcohol, and chlordiazepoxide. Psychopharmacologia, 29, 239–246.
Carr, G. D., Fibiger, H. C., & Phillips, A. C. (1989). Conditioned place preference as a measure of drug reward. In J. M. Liebman & S. J. Cooper (Eds.), The neuropharmacological basis of reward (pp. 264–319). Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press.
Collins, R. J., Weeks, J. R., Cooper, M. M., Good, P. I., & Russell, R. R. (1984). Prediction of abuse liability of drugs using IV self-administration by rats. Psychopharmacology, 82, 6–13.
Domjan, M. (1983). Biological constraints on instrumental and classical conditioning: Implications for general process theory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 17, pp. 215–277). New York: Academic Press.
Eikelboom, R., & Stewart, J. (1982). Conditioning of drug-induced physiological responses. Psychological Review, 89, 507–528.
Farber, P. D., Gorman, J. E., & Reid, L. D. (1976). Morphine injections in the taste aversion paradigm. Physiological Psychology, 4, 365–368.
Garcia, J., & Koelling, R. A. (1966). Relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning. Psychonomic Science, 4, 123–124.
Greeley, J. D., & Westbrook, R. F. (1990). Some effects of exposure to a heat Stressor upon the rat’s subsequent reactions to that stressor. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 42B, 241–265.
Katz, R. J., & Gormezano, G. (1979). A rapid inexpensive technique for assessing the reinforcing properties of opiate drugs. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior, 11, 231–233.
Kehoe, P. (1988). Opioids, behavior, and learning in mammalian development. In E. M. Blass (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral neurobiology: Vol. 9. Developmental psychobiology and behavioral ecology (pp. 309–346). New York: Plenum.
Kesner, R. P., & Baker, T. B. (1981). A two-process model of opiate tolerance. In J. L. McGaugh (Ed.), Endogenous peptides and learning and memory processes (pp. 479–518). San Diego: Academic Press.
Kraemer, P. J., Kraemer, E. G., Smoller, D. E., & Spear, N. E. (1989). Enhancement of flavor aversion conditioning in weanling but not adult rats by prior conditioning to an odor. Psychobiology, 17, 34–42.
Krank, M. D. (1987). Conditioned hyperalgesia depends on the pain sensitivity measure. Behavioral Neuroscience, 101, 8.
Krank, M. D., Hinson, R. E., & Siegel, S. (1981). Conditioned hyperalgesia is elicited by environmental signals of morphine. Behavioral & Neural Biology, 32, 148–157.
Lett, B. T., & Grant, V. L. (1989). Conditioned taste preference produced by pairing a taste with a low dose of morphine or sufetanil. Psychopharmacology, 98, 236–239.
Miller, J. S., Kelly, K. S., Neisewander, J. L., McCoy, D. F., & Bardo, M. T. (1990). Conditioning of morphine-induced taste aversion and analgesia. Psychopharmacology, 101, 472–480.
Mucha, R. F., & Herz, A. (1985). Motivational properties of kappa and mu opioid receptor agonists studied with place and taste preference conditioning. Psychopharmacology, 86, 274–280.
Mucha, R. F., & Herz, A. (1986). Preference conditioning produced by opioid active and inactive isomers of levorphaneol and morphine in rat. Life Sciences, 38, 241–249.
Paletta, M. S., & Wagner, A. R. (1986). Development of contextspecific tolerance to morphine: Support for a dual-process interpretation. Behavioral Neuroscience, 100, 611–623.
Poulos, C. X., & Cappell, H. (1991). Homeostatic theory of drug tolerance: A general model of physiological adaptation. Psychological Review, 98, 390–408.
Randall, C. K., Kraemer, P. J., Dose, J. M., Carbary, T. J., & Bardo, M. T. (1992). The biphasic effect of morphine on odor conditioning in neonatal rats. Developmental Psychobiology, 25, 355–364.
Riley, A. L., Jacobs, W. J., & LoLordo, V. M. (1978). Morphine-induced taste aversions: A consideration of parameters. Physiological Psychology, 6, 96–100.
Rochford, J., & Stewart, J. (1987). Morphine attenuation of conditioned autoanalgesia: Implications for theories of situation-specific tolerance to morphine analgesia. Behavioral Neuroscience, 101, 690–700.
Sherman, J. E., Pickman, C., Rice, A., Liebeskind, J. C., & Holman, E. W. (1980). Rewarding and aversive effects of morphine: Temporal and pharmacological properties. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior, 13, 501–505.
Siegel, S. (1975). Evidence from rats that morphine tolerance is a learned response. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 89, 498–506.
Siegel, S. (1976). Morphine analgesic tolerance: Its situation specificity supports a Pavlovian conditioning model. Science, 193, 323–325.
Siegel, S. (1977). Morphine tolerance as an associative process. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 3, 1–13.
Spear, N. E., Kraemer, P. J., Molina, J. C., & Smoller, D. E. (1988). Developmental change in learning and memory: Infantile disposition for unitization. In J. Delacour & J. C. S. Levy (Eds.), Systems with learning and memory abilities (pp. 27–52). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Stapelton, J. M., Lind, M. D., Merriman, V. J., Bozarth, M. A., & Reid, L. D. (1979). Affective consequences and subsequent effects on morphine self-administration of d-ala2-methionine enkephalin. Physiological Psychology, 7, 146–152.
Vezina, P., & Stewart, J. (1987). Conditioned locomotion and place preference elicited by tactile cues paired exclusively with morphine in an open field. Psychopharmacology, 91, 375–380.
Weeks, J. R. (1962). Experimental morphine addiction: Method for automatic intravenous injections in unrestrained rats. Science, 138, 143–144.
Westbrook, R. F., Greeley, J. D., Nabke, C. P., & Swinbourne, A. L. (1991). Aversive conditioning in the rat: Effects of a benzodiazepine and of an opioid agonist and antagonist upon conditioned hypoalgesia and fear. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 17, 219–230.
Westbrook, R. F., Greeley, J. D., Nabke, C. P., Swinbourne, A. L., & Harvey, A. (1991). Effects of morphine and naloxone upon the reactions of rats to a heat Stressor. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43B, 323–346.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grant 2 S07 RR07114-21 to P.J.K. and National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA07746 to M.T.B.
The authors wish to thank R. Hardesty and D. Graves for their assistance in conducting Experiment 1, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Randall, C.K., Kraemer, P.J., Valone, J.M. et al. Odor conditioning with morphine: Conditioned preference, aversion, and analgesia. Psychobiology 21, 215–220 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327137
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327137