Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7223-7117

Date Available

5-10-2023

Year of Publication

2023

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Michael T. Bardo

Abstract

Those with substance use disorders can undergo craving and relapse when re-exposed to a drug-associated context. This study determined if renewal of cocaine seeking is differentially controlled by contexts consisting of social and/or nonsocial stimuli. Experiment 1, rats self-administered cocaine in Context A which included a social peer and house light illumination. Following self-administration, rats were randomly assigned to an AAA or ABA group for extinction and renewal. For the AAA rats, context was similar to self-administration; for ABA rats, the drug-associated stimuli (peer and house light) were removed (Context B). Following extinction, renewal of cocaine seeking was examined by testing the peer alone, house light alone, or the combination. Experiment 2 was similar, except only a house light (no peer) was used throughout the experiment. Results revealed rats acquired cocaine self-administration and extinguished lever pressing for both experiments. For Experiment 1, ABA rats renewed cocaine seeking to the peer alone and peer+house light but not the house light alone. Experiment 2 found ABA rats renewed cocaine seeking to the house light alone, but the AAA group did not. These data indicate that social peers serve as powerful stimuli that can overshadow nonsocial stimuli in the renewal of cocaine seeking.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.179

Funding Information

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

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