Conditioned Incentive Paradigm with Lever Pressing
Objective: To assess whether amphetamine sensitization enhances cue-triggered reward pursuit by measuring lever pressing behavior in response to Pavlovian auditory cues associated with sucrose reward
This is a Conditioned Incentive Paradigm with Lever Pressing protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 6 procedural steps, 3 equipment items, 5 materials. Extracted from a 2001 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • Not specified • unknown • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
~1.4 week study window
Core workflow
Amphetamine sensitization induction • Lever pressing training • Pavlovian cue-reward association
Primary readouts
- Lever pressing rate during baseline conditions
- Lever pressing rate during CS- (negative conditioned stimulus) presentations
- Lever pressing rate during CS+ (positive conditioned stimulus) presentations
- Increase in pressing from baseline to CS+ presentation
Key equipment and reagents
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Protocol Steps
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Amphetamine sensitization induction
Rats received six daily intraperitoneal injections of amphetamine to induce sensitization. Control rats received saline injections instead.
Note: Sensitization protocol completed before behavioral testing
View evidence from paper
“Amphetamine sensitization was induced by six daily injections of amphetamine (3 mg/kg, i.p.; controls received saline)”
Lever pressing training
Rats learned to press a lever to obtain sucrose pellets as reward
Note: Instrumental conditioning phase
View evidence from paper
“Rats learned to lever press for sucrose pellets”
Pavlovian cue-reward association
Rats separately learned to associate sucrose pellets with 30 second auditory Pavlovian cues
Note: Classical conditioning phase pairing auditory stimulus with sucrose
View evidence from paper
“they separately learned to associate sucrose pellets with Pavlovian cues (30 sec auditory cues)”
Waiting period after sensitization
Rats waited 10 days after the final amphetamine injection before behavioral testing
Note: Testing occurred in drug-free state
View evidence from paper
“Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions 10 d later”
Nucleus accumbens microinjection
Bilateral microinjection of either vehicle or amphetamine into nucleus accumbens immediately before behavioral testing
Note: 5 µg/0.5 µl per side injected
View evidence from paper
“after a bilateral microinjection of intra-accumbens vehicle or amphetamine (5 µg/0.5 µl per side)”
Extinction lever pressing test with cue presentation
Rats tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions with intermittent presentations of the conditioned stimulus (CS+) sucrose cue. Cue-triggered pursuit measured by increases in pressing on sucrose-associated lever during CS+ presentations.
Note: Testing assessed both baseline pressing and pressing during CS+ and CS- presentations
View evidence from paper
“Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions 10 d later. Cue-triggered pursuit of sucrose reward was assessed by increases in pressing on the sucrose-associated lever during intermittent presentations of a free conditioned stimulus (CS+) sucrose cue”