Conditioning tastant and the acquisition of conditioned taste avoidance to drugs of abuse in DBA/2J mice

Abstract

CTA induced by morphine or cocaine in mice occurs in a similar pattern to that seen in rats, and these findings agree with an interpretation based on drug reward. In contrast, ethanol-induced CTA is more likely attributable to aversive effects.

Deletion of N-Type Calcium Channels Alters Ethanol Reward and Reduces Ethanol Consumption in Mice

“…This procedure was performed according to established protocols (Risinger and Boyce, 2002;Chester et al, 2003). Animals were housed singly and acclimatized to limited water access by allowing them access to water for decreasing periods of time (10,8,6, and 4 hr per day on subsequent days), followed by 2 hr daily access for 1 week.…”

“…Having established that the rewarding effects of ethanol are altered in Ca v 2.2 null mice, we next investigated the aversive properties of ethanol using a conditioned taste aversion assay with ethanol as the unconditioned stimulus and 1.2% NaCl as the CS. Using 1.2% NaCl as the CS is thought to measure genuine aversion to ethanol, rather than reward, which may be measured using saccharin as the CS (Grigson, 1997;Risinger and Boyce, 2002;Chester et al, 2003). After commencement of ethanol treatment, both genotypes rapidly developed conditioned taste aversion.…”

Role of acetaldehyde in ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion in rats

“…Aragon et al 1991a;Broadbent et al 2002), the results of the present experiment showed that ethanol induced a strong dose-dependent CTA. The CTA induced by ethanol was shown to be dependent upon the aversive properties of ethanol in both mice (Broadbent et al 2002;Risinger and Boyce 2002) and rats (Froehlich et al 1988). …”

“…Recent studies indicated that ethanol-induced CTA is mediated by its aversive properties in naive animals (Froehlich et al 1988;Broadbent et al 2002;Risinger and Boyce 2002). Considering the strong reinforcing properties of brain acetaldehyde, it may be suggested that acetaldehyde-induced CTA is mediated by its rewarding properties, although additional studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.…”

“…It has been suggested that CTAs induced by positively reinforcing drugs are qualitatively different from CTAs induced by aversive substances and rely on different mechanisms (Grigson 1997). Several studies in both mice (Broadbent et al 2002;Risinger and Boyce 2002) and rats (Froehlich et al 1988) indicated that ethanol-induced CTA is mediated by the aversive effects of ethanol rather than its rewarding properties. However, the role of acetaldehyde in ethanol-induced CTA is still unclear.…”