Odor preference and odor avoidance induced by amphetamine depending on the testing modality

REVILLO, D.A.; FERNANDEZ, G.; CASTELLO, S.; PAGLINI, M.G.; ARIAS, C.

Jaen

Congreso; Sociedad Española de Psicología comparada/International society for comparative psychology; 2012

Sociedad Española de Psicología comparada/International society for comparative psychology

Psychostimulant drugs induce appetitive or aversive learning in rats. Their appetitive effects are more likely to become associated with contextual cues, while the aversive ones have been consistently found in taste aversion learning. To explain this paradox, it has been proposed that rats would avoid a taste that predicts a change in their homeostasis because this species cannot vomit. In this study we assessed the motivational properties of amphetamine by means of an odor conditioning preparation, which enables the analysis of the hedonic value of the memory by means of a consumption test or in terms of locomotor approach to the odor. Results indicate that regardless of the amphetamine dose (1 or 5 mg/kg), when animals were evaluated in the intake test, subjects avoided the odor. However, the outcome in the locomotor avoidance test varied as a function of the amphetamine dose. Rats trained with the low dose (1 mg/kg) showed odor preference, while the highest amphetamine dose (5 mg/kg) induced odor avoidance. When LiCl was employed as unconditioned stimulus, rats showed avoidance in the intake and locomotor activity tests. These data indicate that rats expressed conditioned odor avoidance or preference depending on the dose and testing modality. These results are relevant for current theories of avoidance learning induced by rewarding drugs.