Reward Comparison, Drug Self-Administration, and the Accumbens

Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr, Hershey PA

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): [unreadable] It is reported that humans addicted to drugs of abuse fail to respond appropriately to natural rewards like food, employment, and caring for their children. Similarly, we have shown that rats with a greater propensity to self-administer drugs of abuse also avoid intake of a natural gustatory reward after it is repeatedly paired with the opportunity to self-administer the drug reward. Under our reward comparison hypothesis, avoidance of the natural reward results from devaluation of the taste cue as it comes to predict the availability of the more rewarding drug of abuse. As such, our model will not only allow for an assessment of cue-induced craving and relapse, as do other models, but also of the behavioral (Specific Aim I), environmental (Specific Aim II), and neurophysiological (Specific Aim Ill) factors underlying drug-induced devaluation of natural rewards. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]