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Peart DR, Nolan CJ, Stone AP, Williams MA, Karlovcec JM, Murray JE. Disruption of positive- and negative-feature morphine interoceptive occasion setters by dopamine receptor agonism and antagonism in male and female rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2024; 241:1597-1615. [PMID: 38580732 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-024-06584-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
RATIONALE Internally perceived stimuli evoked by morphine administration can form Pavlovian associations such that they can function as occasion setters (OSs) for externally perceived reward cues in rats, coming to modulate reward-seeking behaviour. Though much research has investigated mechanisms underlying opioid-related reinforcement and analgesia, neurotransmitter systems involved in the functioning of opioids as Pavlovian interoceptive discriminative stimuli remain to be disentangled despite documented differences in the development of tolerance to analgesic versus discriminative stimulus effects. OBJECTIVES Dopamine has been implicated in many opioid-related behaviours, so we aimed to investigate the role of this neurotransmitter in expression of morphine occasion setting. METHODS Male and female rats were assigned to positive- (FP) or negative-feature (FN) groups and received an injection of morphine or saline before each training session. A 15-s white noise conditioned stimulus (CS) was presented 8 times during every training session; offset of this stimulus was followed by 4-s access to liquid sucrose on morphine, but not saline, sessions for FP rats. FN rats learned the reverse contingency. Following stable discrimination, rats began generalization testing for expression of morphine-guided sucrose seeking after systemic pretreatment with different doses of the non-selective dopamine receptor antagonist, flupenthixol, and the non-selective dopamine receptor agonist, apomorphine, combined with training doses of morphine or saline in a Latin-square design. RESULTS The morphine discrimination was acquired under both FP and FN contingencies by males and females. Neither flupenthixol nor apomorphine at any dose substituted for morphine, but both apomorphine and flupenthixol disrupted expression of the morphine OS. This inhibition was specific to sucrose seeking during CS presentations rather than during the period before CS onset and, in the case of apomorphine more so than flupenthixol, to trials on which access to sucrose was anticipated. CONCLUSIONS Our findings lend support to a mechanism of occasion setting involving gating of CS-induced dopamine release rather than by direct dopaminergic modulation by the morphine stimulus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davin R Peart
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
- Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Caitlin J Nolan
- Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Adiia P Stone
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
- Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Mckenna A Williams
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Jessica M Karlovcec
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
- Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Jennifer E Murray
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada.
- Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada.
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Peart DR, Claridge EV, Karlovcec JM, El Azali R, LaDouceur KE, Sikic A, Thomas A, Stone AP, Murray JE. Generalization of a positive-feature interoceptive morphine occasion setter across the rat estrous cycle. Horm Behav 2024; 162:105541. [PMID: 38583235 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2023] [Revised: 03/17/2024] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Interoceptive stimuli elicited by drug administration acquire conditioned modulatory properties of the induction of conditioned appetitive behaviours by exteroceptive cues. This effect may be modeled using a drug discrimination task in which the drug stimulus is trained as a positive-feature (FP) occasion setter (OS) that disambiguates the relation between an exteroceptive light conditioned stimulus (CS) and a sucrose unconditioned stimulus (US). We previously reported that females are less sensitive to generalization of a FP morphine OS than males, so we investigated the role of endogenous ovarian hormones in this difference. METHODS Male and female rats received intermixed injections of 3.2 mg/kg morphine or saline before each daily training session. Training consisted of 8 presentations of the CS, each followed by access to sucrose on morphine, but not saline sessions. Following acquisiton, rats were tested for generalization of the morphine stimulus to 0, 1.0, 3.2, and 5.4 mg/kg morphine. Female rats were monitored for estrous cyclicity using vaginal cytology throughout the study. RESULTS Both sexes acquired stable drug discrimination. A gradient of generalization was measured across morphine doses and this behaviour did not differ by sex, nor did it differ across the estrous cycle in females. CONCLUSIONS Morphine generalization is independent of fluctuations in levels of sex and endogenous gonadal hormones in females under these experimental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davin R Peart
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Ella V Claridge
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Jessica M Karlovcec
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Rita El Azali
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Kathleen E LaDouceur
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Anita Sikic
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Abina Thomas
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Adiia P Stone
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Jennifer E Murray
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
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Huang S, Cerveny SE, Ruprecht AL, Steere ER, Davidson TL, Riley AL. Serial feature positive and feature negative discrimination learning in a taste avoidance preparation: implications for interoceptive control of behavior. Behav Pharmacol 2023; 34:350-361. [PMID: 37462148 DOI: 10.1097/fbp.0000000000000741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Psychoactive drugs produce interoceptive stimuli that can guide appropriate behaviors by initiating or inhibiting responding. OBJECTIVE The current study investigated whether an interoceptive morphine state produces similar patterns of serial feature positive (FP) and feature negative (FN) discrimination learning under comparable conditions in a taste avoidance design. METHODS Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained under 10 cycles of FP or FN discrimination. In the FP task, morphine (10 mg/kg, IP) signaled that a saccharin solution was followed by LiCl (1.2 mEq, IP), while the vehicle (saline) signaled that the LiCl was withheld. In the FN task, the contingency was reversed. RESULTS The FP-trained rats acquired the discrimination after three training cycles, consuming significantly less saccharin on morphine, than on vehicle, sessions ( P < 0.05). The FN-trained rats acquired the discrimination after six training cycles, consuming more on morphine than on vehicle sessions ( P < 0.05). However, FN-trained rats never recovered saccharin consumption to baseline levels and 40% of the rats continued to avoid saccharin (consuming 0 ml) on morphine sessions. Control rats that never received LiCl consumed high levels of saccharin on morphine and vehicle sessions, indicating that morphine did not produce unconditioned suppression of saccharin consumption. CONCLUSION The difficulty to acquire FN discrimination might reflect the limitations of learning about safety contingencies in the taste avoidance design. The rapidity of FP learning when a drug state signals an aversive contingency may have implications for the general role of interoceptive stimuli in the control of behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shihui Huang
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University
| | - Sydney E Cerveny
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University
| | - Anna L Ruprecht
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University
| | - Ethan R Steere
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University
| | - Terry L Davidson
- Laboratory for Behavioral and Neural Homeostasis, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University, Washington, D.C., USA
| | - Anthony L Riley
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University
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Impact of the Aversive Effects of Drugs on Their Use and Abuse. Behav Neurol 2022; 2022:8634176. [PMID: 35496768 PMCID: PMC9045991 DOI: 10.1155/2022/8634176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Revised: 01/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Drug use and abuse are complex issues in that the basis of each may involve different determinants and consequences, and the transition from one to the other may be equally multifaceted. A recent model of the addiction cycle (as proposed by Koob and his colleagues) illustrates how drug-taking patterns transition from impulsive (acute use) to compulsive (chronic use) as a function of various neuroadaptations leading to the downregulation of DA systems, upregulation of stress systems, and the dysregulation of the prefrontal/orbitofrontal cortex. Although the nature of reinforcement in the initiation and mediation of these effects may differ (positive vs. negative), the role of reinforcement in drug intake (acute and chronic) is well characterized. However, drugs of abuse have other stimulus properties that may be important in their use and abuse. One such property is their aversive effects that limit drug intake instead of initiating and maintaining it. Evidence of such effects comes from both clinical and preclinical populations. In support of this position, the present review describes the aversive effects of drugs (assessed primarily in conditioned taste aversion learning), the fact that they occur concurrently with reward as assessed in combined taste aversion/place preference designs, the role of aversive effects in drug-taking (in balance with their rewarding effects), the dissociation of these affective properties in that they can be affected in different ways by the same manipulations, and the impact of various parametric, experiential, and subject factors on the aversive effects of drugs and the consequent impact of these factors on their use and abuse potential.
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Andrade AK, Renda B, Sharivker M, Lambert K, Murray JE. Sex differences in the discriminative stimulus characteristics of a morphine occasion setter in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2021; 205:173173. [PMID: 33753118 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2021.173173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2020] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
The current study investigated whether the stimulus effects of morphine can function as a positive and negative feature in a Pavlovian occasion setting drug discrimination preparation in male and female rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to a feature positive (FP) or feature negative (FN) training group and all received intermixed morphine (3.2 mg/kg, IP) or saline injections 15 min before 20-min daily training sessions. For FP rats, on morphine sessions, each of eight 15-s white noise (WN) presentations was followed by 4-s access to sucrose (0.01 ml, 26% w/v); on saline sessions, sucrose was withheld. FN rats learned the reverse contingency. FP discrimination was acquired somewhat sooner than FN discrimination, and females, but not males, became sensitized to the locomotor effects of morphine, which did not influence conditioned responding. Rats then entered dose generalization testing. There was no sex difference in dose generalization for FN groups (ED50 1.26 for males and 1.57 for females). Yet for FP rats, the dose response curve for females was shifted to the right compared to males (ED50 0.54 for males and 1.94 for females). FP females exhibited enhanced responding at a dose higher than that of their original training. These findings reveal the need to reassess our notions of drug stimuli that guide appropriate associative behaviours from the perspective of sex differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allyson K Andrade
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Briana Renda
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Michael Sharivker
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Karlie Lambert
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Jennifer E Murray
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Collaborative Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
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Riley AL, Clasen MM, Friar MA. Conditioned Taste Avoidance Drug Discrimination Procedure: Assessments and Applications. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2019; 39:297-317. [PMID: 27221624 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2016_8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
In the present chapter, we summarize much of the work on the taste avoidance drug discrimination procedure, presenting the logic for its initial introduction and the extension of the procedure in the investigation of the discriminative properties of various drugs. Results from these assessments parallel those from more traditional operant and maze designs in classifying and characterizing the discriminative properties of drug. At the same time, this design reveals a procedure that is sensitive in such assessments by indexing these stimulus properties more rapidly and at lower doses than in the more traditional procedures (in some cases for drugs heretofore resistant in their detection). Importantly, much remains to be learned about the taste avoidance procedure in that the nature of such learning remains unknown and the specific parameters under which it can be established and generalized and its neurochemical and neuroanatomical bases are largely unexplored. The application of drug discrimination learning to human drug abuse continues to be an important consideration for this specific design (as well as that of drug discrimination procedures in general), and recent parallels between drug use and food intake in terms of its regulation by interoceptive stimuli suggests a possible role of the loss of stimulus control in drug escalation and addiction (with possible therapeutic implications via the modulation of these interoceptive cues).
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony L Riley
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC, 20016, USA.
| | - Matthew M Clasen
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC, 20016, USA
| | - Mary A Friar
- Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC, 20016, USA
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Murray JE, Walker AW, Li C, Wells NR, Penrod RD, Bevins RA. Nicotine trained as a negative feature passes the retardation-of-acquisition and summation tests of a conditioned inhibitor. Learn Mem 2011; 18:452-8. [PMID: 21693633 DOI: 10.1101/lm.2177411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Nicotine functions as a negative feature in a Pavlovian discriminated goal-tracking task. Whether withholding of responding to the conditional stimulus (CS) reflects nicotine functioning as a conditioned inhibitor is unknown. Accordingly, the present research sought to determine whether nicotine trained as a negative feature passed the retardation-of-acquisition and summation tests, thus characterizing it as a pharmacological (interoceptive) conditioned inhibitor. In the retardation test, rats received either nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) or chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg) negative feature training in which the drug state signaled when a 15-sec light CS would not be paired with sucrose; light was paired with sucrose on intermixed saline sessions. Following acquisition of the discrimination, both groups received nicotine CS training in which sucrose was intermittently available on nicotine but not intermixed saline sessions. Acquisition of conditioned responding to the nicotine CS was slower in the nicotine negative feature group than in the chlordiazepoxide negative feature group. In the summation test, rats were assigned to either the nicotine negative feature group or a pseudoconditioning control. In this control, the light CS was paired with sucrose on half the nicotine and half the saline sessions. Both groups also received excitatory training in which a white noise CS was paired with sucrose. The summation test consisted of presenting the white noise in conjunction with nicotine. Conditioned responding evoked by the white noise was decreased in the negative feature but not the pseudoconditioning group. Combined, the results provide the first evidence that an interoceptive stimulus (nicotine) can become a conditioned inhibitor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer E Murray
- Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 68588-0308, USA
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Associative interference with taste aversions after contextual discrimination learning. LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2003. [DOI: 10.1016/s0023-9690(03)00035-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Clarke HA, Skinner DM, van der Kooy D. Combined hippocampal and amygdala lesions block learning of a response-independent form of occasion-setting. Behav Neurosci 2001. [DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.115.2.341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Modulation of Taste Aversions by a Pentobarbital Drug State: An Assessment of Its Transfer Properties. LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2000. [DOI: 10.1006/lmot.2000.1058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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