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Effect of Order of Fixed Ratio Presentation on Demand for Self‐administered Remifentanil in Rats
Author(s) -
Maguire David R,
Minervini Vanessa,
France Charles P
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.lb85
Subject(s) - price elasticity of demand , elasticity (physics) , demand curve , remifentanil , economics , econometrics , anesthesia , mathematics , medicine , microeconomics , thermodynamics , physics , propofol
Behavioral economics has been used extensively to study factors that control operant behavior, including quantification of reinforcing effectiveness of drugs. Consumption of a commodity decreases with increasing price, and the rate of decrease reflects demand elasticity, which is inversely related to reinforcing effectiveness; drugs with low elasticity have greater effectiveness than those with higher elasticity. Price is often manipulated by varying the number of responses required to obtain an infusion (e.g., fixed ratio [FR] schedule); however, many studies present price using only one order, which could introduce sequence effects that influence estimates of demand. This study examined the impact of the order of FR presentation on demand for the mu opioid receptor agonist remifentanil (0.0032 mg/kg/infusion) using a within‐subjects, reversal design. Seven male rats lever pressed for iv infusions. The FR varied across 3‐session blocks, yielding a demand curve. During the first and third phases of the study, FR values were presented in a strictly ascending order; during the second phase, FR values were presented in a mixed order. Rats obtained more than 60 infusions on average per session under baseline conditions (i.e., FR1) during each of the three phases, and the number of infusions decreased systematically with increasing FR values. Estimates of elasticity (i.e., reinforcing effectiveness) were not statistically different across the three phases indicating that the order of ratio presentation did not alter estimates of demand and further demonstrating the marked robustness of price as a source of control over operant behavior, including behavior maintained by drug reinforcers. Support or Funding Information This study was supported, in part, by the Welch Foundation (AQ‐0039). This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .