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Enhancing effect of heroin on social recognition learning in male Sprague–Dawley rats: modulation by heroin pre-exposure

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Abstract

Rationale

There is evidence that pre-exposure to drugs of abuse can induce sensitization to several of their effects.

Objective

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of heroin pre-exposure on modulation of memory consolidation as indexed by heroin's action on rate of learning.

Materials and methods

Male Sprague–Dawley rats were tested on a social recognition learning task which assesses changes in investigation during repeated exposure to the same rat (habituation training: four sessions) and during exposure to a novel rat (dishabituation test). In the first experiment, rats received 0, 0.3, or 1 mg/kg heroin s.c. immediately following each training session, or 1 mg/kg heroin 2 h post-training. In experiments 2 and 3, rats received 1 mg/kg heroin post-training after a 7-day drug-free period from heroin pre-exposure achieved through conditioned place preference (1 mg/kg s.c., 1 injection/day × 4 days) or intravenous self-administration (0.05 mg/kg/infusion i.v., 3 h/day × 9 days) training. In experiment 4, rats received 0, 0.03, 0.3, or 3 mg/kg heroin post-training after a 7-day drug-free period from a regimen of heroin administration (i.e., 1 mg/kg heroin/day s.c. × 7 days) that induced locomotor sensitization.

Results

Post-training administration of heroin enhanced social recognition learning in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Importantly, no regimen of heroin pre-exposure significantly altered this effect of heroin.

Conclusions

These results do not support the hypothesis that heroin pre-exposure leads to sensitization to its effect on memory consolidation of non-drug-related learning. However, this requires further testing using alternative heroin pre-exposure regimens, a wider range of post-training heroin doses, as well as other types of learning tasks.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The authors wish to thank Dr. Norman White for his valuable input on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Ms. Erin Cummins and Mr. Derek Jacklin for their technical assistance.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1H 1G9, Canada

    AnneMarie Levy, Elena Choleris & Francesco Leri

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  1. AnneMarie Levy
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  2. Elena Choleris
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  3. Francesco Leri
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Correspondence to Francesco Leri.

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Levy, A., Choleris, E. & Leri, F. Enhancing effect of heroin on social recognition learning in male Sprague–Dawley rats: modulation by heroin pre-exposure. Psychopharmacology 204, 413–421 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1473-z

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