International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy

Condicionamiento de Lugar en Ratas y Etanol [Place Conditioning in Rats and Ethanol]

Volume 7 Num. 3 - November 2007 - Pages 321-333

Authors:

Giselle Vanesa Kamenetzky, Lucas Cuenya, Valeria Pedrón and Alba Elisabeth Mustaca

Abstract:

One of the most common procedures used to assess the hedonic value of a drug is the conditioned place (CP) which explores the preference or the aversion towards a previously drug paired context. In this paper we report on the different apparatus, procedures and dependant measures used on CP and the main results found using ethanol. Finally we present a CP between-within subjects experiment on rats. The experiment consisted in three phases: (1) Pre-Test, we measured the animal’s preference towards both contexts black place (BP) and white place (WP); (2) Conditioning, each animal received ethanol (dose: 0.5g/kg, i.p.) paired with the non preferred context and saline paired with the preferred context on alternate trials. A control group received vehicle in both contexts; (3) Post-Test same as pre-test. In both tests the time spent in each context was measured. The ethanol treated group reversed its place preference, whereas the saline group kept its initial preference. From this study we inferred that under this dose, ethanol has a positive hedonic value.

Key words:

Place conditioning, Ethanol, Rats

Full Article

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