Extinction Testing with Conditioned Stimulus
Objective: To assess cue-triggered pursuit behavior for sucrose reward in rats with and without amphetamine sensitization, measuring how conditioned stimulus presentations increase lever pressing during extinction conditions
This is a Extinction Testing with Conditioned Stimulus 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
Lever pressing training • Pavlovian cue conditioning • Amphetamine sensitization induction
Primary readouts
- Lever pressing rate during baseline
- Lever pressing rate during CS- (negative conditioned stimulus) presentations
- Lever pressing rate during CS+ (sucrose-associated conditioned stimulus) presentations
- Increase in pressing from baseline during CS+ presentations
Key equipment and reagents
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Protocol Steps
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Lever pressing training
Rats learned to lever press for sucrose pellets in operant conditioning chambers
Note: This establishes the instrumental response
View evidence from paper
“Rats learned to lever press for sucrose pellets”
Pavlovian cue conditioning
Rats separately learned to associate sucrose pellets with 30 second auditory conditioned stimulus cues
Note: This establishes the CS+ (sucrose-associated cue)
View evidence from paper
“they separately learned to associate sucrose pellets with Pavlovian cues (30 sec auditory cues)”
Amphetamine sensitization induction
Sensitized group received six daily intraperitoneal injections of amphetamine at 3 mg/kg; control group received saline injections
Note: Controls received saline instead of amphetamine
View evidence from paper
“Amphetamine sensitization was induced by six daily injections of amphetamine (3 mg/kg, i.p.; controls received saline)”
Waiting period
Rats were allowed to rest for 10 days after sensitization induction before testing
Note: Testing occurred after this delay period
View evidence from paper
“Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions 10 d later”
Intra-accumbens microinjection
Bilateral microinjection of either vehicle or amphetamine (5 µg/0.5 µl per side) into the nucleus accumbens immediately before extinction testing
Note: All rats received microinjection; sensitized rats received either vehicle or amphetamine; control rats received either vehicle or amphetamine
View evidence from paper
“after a bilateral microinjection of intra-accumbens vehicle or amphetamine (5 µg/0.5 µl per side)”
Extinction testing with conditioned stimulus presentations
Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions with intermittent presentations of the free conditioned stimulus (CS+) sucrose cue to measure cue-triggered pursuit behavior
Note: Cue-triggered pursuit assessed by increases in pressing on sucrose-associated lever during CS+ presentations
View evidence from paper
“Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions...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”