Differential effects of acute and prolonged morphine withdrawal on motivational and goal‐directed control over reward‐seeking behaviour

Abstract

Opioid addiction is a relapsing disorder marked by uncontrolled drug use and reduced interest in normally rewarding activities. The current study investigated the impact of spontaneous withdrawal from chronic morphine exposure on emotional, motivational and cognitive processes involved in regulating the pursuit and consumption of food rewards in male rats. In Experiment 1, rats experiencing acute morphine withdrawal lost weight and displayed somatic signs of drug dependence. However, hedonically driven sucrose consumption was significantly elevated, suggesting intact and potentially heightened reward processing. In Experiment 2, rats undergoing acute morphine withdrawal displayed reduced motivation when performing an effortful response for palatable food reward. Subsequent reward devaluation testing revealed that acute withdrawal disrupted their ability to exert flexible goal‐directed control over reward seeking. Specifically, morphine‐withdrawn rats were impaired in using current reward value to select actions both when relying on prior action‐outcome learning and when given direct feedback about the consequences of their actions. In Experiment 3, rats tested after prolonged morphine withdrawal displayed heightened rather than diminished motivation for food rewards and retained their ability to engage in flexible goal‐directed action selection. However, brief re‐exposure to morphine was sufficient to impair motivation and disrupt goal‐directed action selection, though in this case, rats were only impaired in using reward value to select actions in the presence of morphine‐paired context cues and in the absence of response‐contingent feedback. We suggest that these opioid‐withdrawal induced deficits in motivation and goal‐directed control may contribute to addiction by interfering with the pursuit of adaptive alternatives to drug use.