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Valyear MD, LeCocq MR, Brown A, Villaruel FR, Segal D, Chaudhri N. Learning processes in relapse to alcohol use: lessons from animal models. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2023; 240:393-416. [PMID: 36264342 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-022-06254-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 10/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Alcohol use is reliably preceded by discrete and contextual stimuli which, through diverse learning processes, acquire the capacity to promote alcohol use and relapse to alcohol use. OBJECTIVE We review contemporary extinction, renewal, reinstatement, occasion setting, and sex differences research within a conditioning framework of relapse to alcohol use to inform the development of behavioural and pharmacological therapies. KEY FINDINGS Diverse learning processes and corresponding neurobiological substrates contribute to relapse to alcohol use. Results from animal models indicate that cortical, thalamic, accumbal, hypothalamic, mesolimbic, glutamatergic, opioidergic, and dopaminergic circuitries contribute to alcohol relapse through separable learning processes. Behavioural therapies could be improved by increasing the endurance and generalizability of extinction learning and should incorporate whether discrete cues and contexts influence behaviour through direct excitatory conditioning or occasion setting mechanisms. The types of learning processes that most effectively influence responding for alcohol differ in female and male rats. CONCLUSION Sophisticated conditioning experiments suggest that diverse learning processes are mediated by distinct neural circuits and contribute to relapse to alcohol use. These experiments also suggest that gender-specific behavioural and pharmacological interventions are a way towards efficacious therapies to prevent relapse to alcohol use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milan D Valyear
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada. .,Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Ave. Dr. Penfield, Room N8/5, Montréal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada.
| | - Mandy R LeCocq
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Alexa Brown
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Franz R Villaruel
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Diana Segal
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Nadia Chaudhri
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
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Collins V, Bornhoft KN, Wolff A, Sinha S, Saunders BT. Hierarchical cue control of cocaine seeking in the face of cost. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2023; 240:461-476. [PMID: 36069951 PMCID: PMC10131580 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-022-06218-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Addiction is characterized by intermittent drug seeking despite rising costs. This behavior is heavily influenced by environmental stimuli that signal drug availability and reinforce drug seeking. OBJECTIVE To establish the relationship between three key aspects of human drug use in rats: the intermittent, binge nature of drug intake, the motivational conflict of drug seeking in the face of escalating negative costs, and the ability of different drug cues to interact to modulate relapse. METHODS Male and female rats were trained to self-administer cocaine on an intermittent access schedule, where brief drug-availability states were signaled by a shift in the ambient lighting of the environment, and cocaine infusions were signaled by a separate proximal discrete cue. Rats then went through a conflict procedure, where foot shock intensity associated with cocaine seeking was escalated until intake was suppressed. We then completed relapse tests where the drug-delivery cue was noncontingently presented alone, or in the context of dynamic drug-availability state transitions. RESULTS Intermittent access spurred psychomotor sensitization and binge-like cocaine intake. The intensity of binge-like drug taking during training was predictive of later drug seeking despite escalating costs during conflict. In relapse tests, the ability of a proximal discrete drug cue to trigger relapse was gated by the presence of a global cue signaling drug-availability state transitions. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the pattern of drug intake plays a role in many features of addiction, including modifying an individual's willingness to endure high costs associated with drug seeking. Furthermore, our studies indicate that drug-related sensory information can be hierarchically organized to exert a dynamic modulating influence on drug-seeking motivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Val Collins
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,Medical Discovery Team On Addiction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Kaisa N Bornhoft
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,Medical Discovery Team On Addiction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Amy Wolff
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,Medical Discovery Team On Addiction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Sonal Sinha
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Benjamin T Saunders
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. .,Medical Discovery Team On Addiction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
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Maddux JM, Gonzales L, Kregar NP. β2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes mediate nicotine-induced enhancement of Pavlovian conditioned responding to an alcohol cue. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:1004368. [PMCID: PMC9596985 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1004368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Nicotine enhances Pavlovian conditioned responses to reward-associated cues. We investigated through which nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtypes nicotine acts to produce this behavioral effect to an alcohol-associated cue. Male Long-Evans rats with freely available food and water were first accustomed to drinking 15% ethanol in their home cages using an intermittent access, two-bottle choice procedure. Then the rats were given 15 Pavlovian conditioning sessions in which a 15-s audiovisual conditioned stimulus (CS) predicted the delivery of 0.2 ml of ethanol, the unconditioned stimulus (US). Each session contained 12 CS-US trials. A control group received explicitly unpaired presentations of the CS and US. We measured Pavlovian conditioned approach to the site of US delivery during presentations of the CS, accounting for pre-CS baseline activity. Before each conditioning session, rats were injected subcutaneously with nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) or saline (1 ml/kg). During nAChR antagonist test sessions, rats were first injected systemically with the β2*-selective nAChR antagonist dihydro-beta-erythroidine (DHβE; 3 mg/kg) or the α7-selective nAChR antagonist methyllycaconitine (MLA; 6 mg/kg), followed by their assigned nicotine or saline injection before assessing their conditioned response to the alcohol-associated cue. Consistent with previous reports, nicotine enhanced the Pavlovian conditioned response to the alcohol-paired cue. DHβE attenuated this enhancement, whereas MLA did not. These results suggest that nicotine acts via β2*, but not α7, nAChRs to amplify Pavlovian conditioned responding to an alcohol cue. These findings contribute to a growing literature that identifies nAChRs as potential targets for pharmacological treatment of co-morbid alcohol and tobacco use disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Marie Maddux
- Department of Psychology, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, United States
- Neuroscience Program, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, United States
- *Correspondence: Jean-Marie Maddux
| | - Leslie Gonzales
- Department of Psychology, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, United States
- Neuroscience Program, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, United States
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The role of context on responding to an alcohol-predictive cue in female and male rats. Alcohol 2022; 99:70-81. [PMID: 34742865 DOI: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2021.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Revised: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In male rats, physical contexts that are associated with alcohol can amplify the response to a discrete, alcohol-predictive conditioned stimulus (CS), and amplify prime-induced reinstatement. Here, we examined these effects as a function of biological sex. Male and female Long-Evans rats were acclimated to drinking ethanol (15% v/v) in their home cages. Next, they were trained to associate an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) (10 s; white noise or clicker; 15 trials per session) with ethanol delivery (0.2 mL per CS; 3.0 mL per session) into a fluid port for oral intake. Training occurred in a distinctive context containing specific visual, olfactory, and tactile stimuli. During alternating sessions, rats were exposed to a second context wherein they did not receive ethanol. At test, CS trials occurred in both contexts without ethanol delivery. Rats then underwent extinction using repeated unreinforced presentations of the CS in both contexts. An alcohol-primed reinstatement test was then conducted, in which 0.2 mL of ethanol was presented at the start of the session and during the first CS trial, after which no ethanol was delivered for the remainder of the session. At both test and reinstatement, male rats made significantly more CS port-entries in the context associated with alcohol delivery than in the context in which alcohol was never experienced. Unlike males, female rats made a similar number of CS port-entries at the test in both the alcohol context and the neutral context. The reinstatement observed in female rats was also not affected by context. These findings suggest that the capacity of an alcohol-associated context to modulate responding to a discrete, alcohol-predictive cue is less pronounced in female than male rats.
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Valyear MD, Glovaci I, Zaari A, Lahlou S, Trujillo-Pisanty I, Andrew Chapman C, Chaudhri N. Dissociable mesolimbic dopamine circuits control responding triggered by alcohol-predictive discrete cues and contexts. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3764. [PMID: 32724058 PMCID: PMC7534644 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17543-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Context can influence reactions to environmental cues and this elemental process has implications for substance use disorder. Using an animal model, we show that an alcohol-associated context elevates entry into a fluid port triggered by a conditioned stimulus (CS) that predicted alcohol (CS-triggered alcohol-seeking). This effect persists across multiple sessions and, after it diminishes in extinction, the alcohol context retains the capacity to augment reinstatement. Systemically administered eticlopride and chemogenetic inhibition of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons reduce CS-triggered alcohol-seeking. Chemogenetically silencing VTA dopamine terminals in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core reduces CS-triggered alcohol-seeking, irrespective of context, whereas silencing VTA dopamine terminals in the NAc shell selectively reduces the elevation of CS-triggered alcohol-seeking in an alcohol context. This dissociation reveals new roles for divergent mesolimbic dopamine circuits in the control of responding to a discrete cue for alcohol and in the amplification of this behaviour in an alcohol context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milan D Valyear
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Iulia Glovaci
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Audrey Zaari
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Soraya Lahlou
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Ivan Trujillo-Pisanty
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - C Andrew Chapman
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Nadia Chaudhri
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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