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Pavlovian discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)
Author(s) -
Levi Bolin B.,
Singleton Destiny L.,
Akins Chana K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1002/jeab.92
Subject(s) - methamphetamine , nicotine , psychology , stimulus control , stimulus (psychology) , quail , classical conditioning , neuroscience , developmental psychology , pharmacology , medicine , conditioning , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics
Pavlovian drug discrimination (DD) procedures demonstrate that interoceptive drug stimuli may come to control behavior by informing the status of conditional relationships between stimuli and outcomes. This technique may provide insight into processes that contribute to drug‐seeking, relapse, and other maladaptive behaviors associated with drug abuse. The purpose of the current research was to establish a model of Pavlovian DD in male Japanese quail. A Pavlovian conditioning procedure was used such that 3.0 mg/kg methamphetamine served as a feature positive stimulus for brief periods of visual access to a female quail and approach behavior was measured. After acquisition training, generalization tests were conducted with cocaine, nicotine, and haloperidol under extinction conditions. SCH 23390 was used to investigate the involvement of the dopamine D 1 receptor subtype in the methamphetamine discriminative stimulus. Results showed that cocaine fully substituted for methamphetamine but nicotine only partially substituted for methamphetamine in quail. Haloperidol dose‐dependently decreased approach behavior. Pretreatment with SCH 23390 modestly attenuated the methamphetamine discrimination suggesting that the D 1 receptor subtype may be involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine. The findings are discussed in relation to drug abuse and associated negative health consequences.