Utah State University, United States.
Utah State University, United States.
Behav Brain Res. 2021 Jul 23;410:113345. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113345. Epub 2021 May 5.
To better approximate the human condition, animal models of relapse to drug and alcohol seeking have increasingly employed negative consequences to generate abstinence. Here we report the first demonstration of relapse to punishment-suppressed alcohol seeking induced by loss of non-drug reward (i.e., resurgence). We also report the first examination of potential sex differences in any form of relapse to alcohol seeking following suppression by punishment. Male and female rats first pressed a lever for 20 % oral alcohol. Next, lever pressing for one group continued to produce alcohol, but also produced occasional footshock. For another group, lever pressing similarly produced alcohol and occasional footshock, and a nose-poke response produced alternative non-drug reward (i.e., food). Males showed similar suppression of alcohol seeking by punishment alone and punishment + alternative non-drug reward, whereas females showed less suppression by punishment alone. Finally, when alternative reinforcement and punishment were suspended, resurgence occurred for both sexes in the group that previously had access to non-drug reward. Exposure to and then removal of punishment alone did not produce relapse for males, but it did for females. These results suggest that loss of alternative non-drug reward can generate relapse to alcohol seeking following abstinence induced by negative consequences. Future research should further examine the role of potential sex differences in sensitivity to punishment and how such differences may contribute to relapse more broadly.
为了更接近人类的状况，越来越多的动物复吸毒品和酒精的模型采用了负面后果来产生禁欲。在这里，我们首次报告了由非药物奖励丧失引起的惩罚抑制性酒精寻求复吸的情况（即反弹）。我们还首次研究了任何形式的惩罚抑制后酒精寻求反弹的潜在性别差异。雄性和雌性大鼠首先按压杠杆以获得 20%的口服酒精。接下来，一组的按压继续产生酒精，但也会偶尔产生电击。对于另一组，按压同样会产生酒精和偶尔的电击，并且鼻戳反应会产生替代非药物奖励（即食物）。雄性动物单独受到惩罚或惩罚加替代非药物奖励的抑制作用相似，而雌性动物受到单独惩罚的抑制作用较小。最后，当替代强化和惩罚暂停时，以前有机会获得非药物奖励的两组动物都出现了反弹。对于雄性动物来说，仅仅暴露于惩罚并不能导致复吸，但对于雌性动物来说，惩罚会导致复吸。这些结果表明，替代非药物奖励的丧失可能会导致禁欲后对酒精寻求的反弹。未来的研究应该进一步研究对惩罚的敏感性方面的潜在性别差异以及这些差异如何更广泛地导致复吸。
