Reinstatement of Alcohol-Seeking Behavior by Drug-Associated Discriminative Stimuli after Prolonged Extinction in the Rat

Abstract

(Wikler 1948). There is now ample evidence that conditioned stimuli associated with the availability or consumption of abused drugs enhance subjective feelings of craving and the motivation to engage in drug-taking behavior in humans (Childress et al. 1987a(Childress et al. , 1987b(Childress et al. , 1988O'Brien et al. 1990O'Brien et al. , 1992Ehrman et al. 1992;Kranzler and Bauer 1992;Robbins and Ehrman 1992). For example, abstinent alcohol users exposed to a bar-like environment worked (i.e., pressed a button which dispensed alcohol) harder to acquire alcohol and showed greater subjective and physiological responses than those exposed to a neutral setting (Ludwig et al. 1974). Similarly, abstinent opiate-dependent subjects reported increased craving in response to the presentation of drug-related stimuli compared to methadonemaintained patients (Childress et al. 1987a). Drug-related stimuli can modify drug-seeking behavior in animals as well. Behavioral tests involving acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of operant respond-

Persistent Increase of Alcohol-Seeking Evoked by Neuropeptide S: an Effect Mediated by the Hypothalamic Hypocretin System

“…Our reinstatement results confirm that environmental stimuli previously associated with and predictive of ethanol availability reliably reinstate extinguished responding at a previously ethanol-paired lever (Ciccocioppo et al, 2001;Katner et al, 1999). The behavioral effects of the ethanolassociated stimuli proved highly resistant to extinction as reflected by the stability of conditioned ethanol-seeking behavior over the repeated reinstatement testing.…”

Spontaneous Recovery During, But not Following, Extinction of the Discriminative Stimulus Effects of Nicotine in Rats: Reinstatement of Stimulus Control

“…When the CS is subsequently presented again, conditioned responding is evoked. Reinstatement has been demonstrated following extinction of fear conditioning in rats (e.g., Rescorla & Heth, 1975;Westbrook, lordanova, McNally, Richardson, & Harris, 2002) as well as in operant conditioning procedures involving drug-reinforced operant responding (e.g., de Wit & Stewart, 1981Stewart, , 1983Katner, Magalong, & Weiss, 1999;McFarland & Ettenberg, 1997). However, there are no known studies that have reported reinstatement of discriminated operant responding under discriminative control by drugs by noncontingent reinforcement following extinction.…”

Conceptual framework for the etiology of alcoholism: a ?kindling?/stress hypothesis

“…Animals trained to lever press for access to alcohol in the presence of auditory or visual cues will not necessarily reinstate lever pressing to these cues after extended extinction (Katner et al 1999; see also Bienkowski et al 2000). However, non-contingent "priming" with alcohol reinstates responding on the "alcohol bar" (Chiamulera et al 1995; see review by .…”

“…However, non-contingent "priming" with alcohol reinstates responding on the "alcohol bar" (Chiamulera et al 1995; see review by . Likewise, when exposed to a combination of an olfactory cue for alcohol and a previously presented auditory or visual cue (Katner et al 1999;Bienkowski et al 2000), alcohol-seeking behavior is reinstated. An alternative approach to facilitate motivation for alcohol after extinction is to induce alcohol dependence prior to testing Liu and Weiss 2002a,b).…”