Reducing the time needed to conduct conditioned place preference testing.

Reducing the time needed to conduct conditioned place preference testing.

Calcagnetti D J; Schechter M D

Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry

1992

1905-06

The objective of the present experiment was to demonstrate whether four days of twice-a-day conditioned place conditioning produces a preference that is equivalent to that produced by using eight days of once-a-day training. Two doses of the amphetamine-like stimulant drug cathinone (0.2 and 1.6 mg/kg) were selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of twice-a-day (morning-vehicle; afternoon-drug pairings) conditioning. The 0.2 mg/kg dose of cathinone failed to affect the expression of place preference, whereas the 1.6 mg/kg dose produced a significant (p less than 0.002) shift in CPP from baseline when compared to previous measurements. These results demonstrate that twice-a-day pairings over four days effectively shorten the total duration of training without changing the development of place preference produced by once-a-day over eight conditioning day schedule.

Alkaloids/pharmacology; Animals; Choice Behavior/*drug effects; Conditioning; Experimental/instrumentation/methods; Inbred Strains; Male; Motor Activity/drug effects; Operant/*drug effects; Psychology; Psychotropic Drugs/pharmacology; Rats

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

969–976

6

16