Traumatic brain injury substantially reduces the conditioned reinforcing effects of environmental cues in rats.

ABSTRACT: Traumatic brain injury affects millions of people each year and is an established risk factor for addiction. Recent animal studies have causally demonstrated that injuries can increase drug self-administration across a variety of substances. One potential behavioral mediator for this finding is an increased responsivity to drug-associated cues. This endophenotype can be identified by profiling non-drug-related behaviors. The current study evaluated several paradigms (conditioned approach, conditioned reinforcement, extinction from variable interval responding, conditioned facilitation) to determine how rats with a frontal TBI differed in their response to Pavlovian conditioning in response to food-paired cues. Surprisingly, rats with a TBI demonstrated increased goal-tracking in a conditio

SUBMITTER: Modrak CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7572725 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature