Incentive Salience, not Psychomotor Sensitization or Tolerance, Drives Escalation of Cocaine Self-Administration in Heterogeneous Stock Rats.

ABSTRACT: Sensitization and tolerance are two phenomena often studied independently despite overlapping neurobiological substrates. Each has extensive research showing their influence on the development and maintenance of addiction, but the degree to which they drive escalation in cocaine self-administration is poorly understood. Using self-administration, intravenous noncontingent infusions, and pose-estimation machine vision, we find that incentive salience, not psychomotor sensitization or tolerance, drives the escalation of cocaine self-administration in heterogenous stock rats. Individual differences in psychomotor sensitization or tolerance were found to have no effect on cocaine intake. Incentive salience as measured by locomotion and active lever entrances per meter traveled occurring before

SUBMITTER: Ramborger J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12667895 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature