Positive affective vocalizations during cocaine and sucrose self-administration: a model for spontaneous drug desire in rats.

ABSTRACT: Ultrasonic vocalizations in the 50 kHz range (50 kHz USVs) are emitted by rodents upon activation of positive affective states and appear to be a direct measure of internal emotional and motivational urges to seek rewarding stimuli such as drugs of abuse. Since these behavioral responses do not rely on training for expression, they can be viewed as a "spontaneous" measure of affective state. The goal of the present study was to monitor spontaneous USVs throughout a widely-used cocaine self-administration and reinstatement model of addiction and relapse. To gain insight into the changes in affective state across the different phases of a standard self-administration experiment, we measured 50 kHz USVs in rats during cocaine self-administration and reinstatement, and compared these to sucros

SUBMITTER: Browning JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3115664 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature