Background
The environmental context in which drug-conditioned cues are encountered could modulate
the capacity of such cues to trigger relapse in abstinent addicts. We explored this
hypothesis using a behavioral animal model.
Methods
Rats were trained to discriminate between two auditory stimuli; the first (CS+) was
paired with 10% ethanol and the second (CS−) was presented without ethanol. Training
occurred in operant conditioning chambers equipped with distinct contextual stimuli,
and entries into the ethanol delivery port during the stimuli were measured. Behavior
was then extinguished by presenting both stimuli without ethanol in a second, different
context. Context-dependent renewal of port entries was tested by presenting the CS+
and CS− without ethanol in the original training context.
Results
At test, port entries during the CS+ increased compared with extinction levels, while
responding during the CS− remained unchanged (n = 11). This effect was attenuated after multiple extinction sessions in three distinct
contexts (n = 18), compared with an equivalent number of extinction sessions in a single unique
context (n = 16). Context-dependent renewal of port entries was also observed to a CS+ paired
with 14% sucrose (n = 7) but not to a CS+ paired with 2% sucrose (n = 8).
Conclusions
Environmental contexts can trigger the relapse of behavioral responding to ethanol-
and sucrose-predictive cues in rats. For ethanol, this effect can be reduced by extinguishing
responses to the ethanol cue in multiple distinct contexts, a manipulation that could
increase the efficacy of cue-reactivity treatments for addiction.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 23, 2008
Accepted:
March 7,
2008
Received in revised form:
March 6,
2008
Received:
August 1,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
