Conditioned object preference: an alternative approach to measuring reward learning in rats.

ABSTRACT: Pavlovian conditioned approach behavior can be directed as much toward discrete cues as it is toward the environmental contexts in which those cues are encountered. The current experiments characterized a tendency of rats to approach object cues whose prior exposure had been paired with reward (conditioned object preference, COP). To demonstrate the phenomenon, rats were conditioned to associate cocaine or saline with two different objects. Rats acquired a preference, assessed using investigation times directed toward each object, for the cocaine-paired object following conditioning. Furthermore, high levels of object investigation during cocaine conditioning predicted stronger preferences for the cocaine-paired object in the test phase. Conditioned approach diminished across extinction bu

SUBMITTER: Kennedy BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5066602 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature