Elsevier

Experimental Neurology

Volume 82, Issue 3, December 1983, Pages 675-682
Experimental Neurology

Self-stimulation and alcohol administered orally or intraperitoneally

https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4886(83)90089-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The relationships in rats between the reinforcing value of electrical self-stimulation of the brain and varying concentrations of ethanol in the drinking solution (from 5 to 40% v/v alcohol) or in i.p. injections (0.3, 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 g/kg of alcohol) were studied. The reinforcing value of brain stimulation was quantified using the total time spent in self-stimulation and the number of bar pressings. Results showed that the relationships depended on the ethanol concentration, the degree of reinforcement of the brain stimulation, and the route of administration of the ethanol solution. Particularly, a small dosage injected intraperitoneally or ingested orally accentuated the reward produced by an electrical brain stimulation when the self-stimulation performance was still high. On the contrary, a large dosage of alcohol always dramatically depressed the self-stimulation performance.

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    Enhanced brain reward function by acute ethanol in mice (e.g., Fish et al., 2012) and selectively bred alcohol-preferring rats (Eiler et al., 2007) may not generalize to outbred rat strains. Additionally, some studies used uncommon ICSS procedures (Lewis and June, 1990, 1994; Musgrave et al., 1989) or inferred reward enhancement from increased response rates (rate–frequency procedures; Bain and Kornetsky, 1989; de Witte and Bada, 1983). In the present study, we assessed the effects of ethanol on brain reward function using the rate-free discrete-trial current-threshold procedure (Kornetsky et al., 1979; Markou and Koob,1992).

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