Brain Stimulation Reward Performance and Sucrose Maintained Behaviors in Alcohol-Preferring and -Nonpreferring Rats

Abstract

The results demonstrate that responding for BSR is not associated with EtOH preference, insofar as alcohol-preferring and -nonpreferring rats respond similarly under an array of reinforcement schedules and current intensities. In contrast, genetic selection for EtOH preference is highly associated with responding for a palatable sucrose reward, and the relation increases as the reward cost for the sucrose increases. These findings suggest that similar/overlapping mechanisms of action regulate the reinforcing properties of EtOH and sucrose but that overlapping yet distinct neuronal mechanism may modulate the reward characteristics of BSR and EtOH preference.

Increased Vulnerability to Nicotine Self-Administration and Relapse in Alcohol-Naive Offspring of Rats Selectively Bred for High Alcohol Intake

“…Over a range of sucrose concentrations, P rats self-administered more sucrose than NP rats. This finding is consistent with previous studies in which it was found that the P rats consume greater amounts of sucrose (Stewart et al, 1994;Eiler et al, 2005). Our data for sucrose self-administration are also consistent with results from human studies on the association between alcoholism and sucrose palatability and preference (Kampov-Polevoy et al, 1997, 2003.…”

“…Finally, the findings on the lack of P-NP differences in cocaine self-administration are consistent with those of Eiler et al (2005), who reported lack of P-NP differences for medial forebrain bundle stimulation threshold, an established measure of reward sensitivity (Wise, 1996). The findings of the lack of P-NP differences in cocaine self-administration and brain stimulation reward indicate that P-NP differences in nicotine-taking behavior are not the result of general reward deficits in NP rats.…”

Effects of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and α2A-adrenoceptor (C-1291G) genotypes on substance use in children and adolescents: a longitudinal study

“…Interestingly, in animal studies, rats that are bred for high sweet consumption also administer more alcohol (Dess et al 1998(Dess et al , 2005 and other drugs (Carroll et al 2002(Carroll et al , 2007 than less sweet consuming rats. The opposite is also true; that is, rats with high alcohol consumption also display an increased preference for sweets compared with low alcohol-consuming animals (Eiler et al 2005;Grahame et al 1999;Stewart et al 1994). These results support the hypothesis that sweet consumption and substance use may be closely genetically related.…”

Dopamine and Benzodiazepine-Dependent Mechanisms Regulate the EtOH-Enhanced Locomotor Stimulation in the GABAA α1 Subunit Null Mutant Mice

“…This is likely due to the insensitivity of the home-cage paradigm (Roberts et al, 2000). It is well documented that a high correlation exists between intake of EtOH and sweet solutions in the P and HAD rats (Murphy et al, 2002;Woods et al, 2003;Eiler et al, 2005). However, it is important to note that as with the P rats (Stewart et al, 1994), the a1 (À/À) mice did not show an oral preference for bitter tasting solutions (Blednov et al, 2003b); hence, the link between EtOH and reinforcement for sweet palatable solutions in both a1-null mutants and P rats was reinforcer specific.…”