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Renewal of cocaine seeking using social and nonsocial contextual stimuli

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Abstract

Rationale

Various nonsocial cues have been used as stimuli to examine the contextual control of drug seeking behavior, but little is known about the role of social stimuli.

Objectives

This study determined if renewal of cocaine seeking is differentially controlled using a context consisting of either a social peer and/or house light illumination.

Methods

In Experiment 1, male and female rats trained to self-administer cocaine in the presence of a same-sex social peer and house light illumination (context A). Following self-administration, rats were randomly assigned to either an AAA (control) or ABA (renewal) group for extinction. For AAA rats, extinction consisted of the same context A as self-administration; for ABA rats, extinction occurred without the peer or house light (context B). Following extinction, renewal of cocaine seeking occurred by testing the peer alone, house light alone, and the peer + house light combination. Experiment 2 was conducted to ensure that the house light alone was sufficiently salient to produce renewal.

Results

Both experiments showed that rats acquired cocaine self-administration and extinguished lever pressing. In Experiment 1, the ABA group renewed cocaine seeking to the peer and peer + house light, but not to the house light alone. In Experiment 2, ABA rats renewed cocaine seeking to the house light alone, indicating it was sufficiently salient to produce renewal. The AAA group did not show renewal in either experiment.

Conclusion

Social peers serve as powerful stimuli that can overshadow nonsocial visual stimuli in the renewal of cocaine seeking.

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Data Availability

Any data will be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

Support provided by National Institute of Health grant R21 DA041755 and T32 DA035200.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Biomedical Biological Science Research Building, Room 447, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536-0509, USA

    Bree A. Humburg & Michael T. Bardo

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  1. Bree A. Humburg
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  2. Michael T. Bardo
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Correspondence to Michael T. Bardo.

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This article belongs to a Special Issue on Spanning the spectrum of social behavior: towards more translationally relevant animal models

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Humburg, B.A., Bardo, M.T. Renewal of cocaine seeking using social and nonsocial contextual stimuli. Psychopharmacology (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06414-7

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