Abstract
Daily 6-h sessions were run during which each lever press by rats produced brief access to water, or to 8‡/0 (W/V) ethanol on experimental days. Food pellets were presented noncontingently on a 1 min fixed-time schedule during the last, 4 h of each session. A stable baseline of water responding developed, characterized by little or no responding during the first 2 h followed by high rates and schedule-induced polydipsic drinking during the last 4 h. Following the development of a stable water baseline, 8% (W/V) ethanol was substituted for water on alternate days. After one previous session with ethanol, rats' responding for ethanol during the first 2 h of a session substantially exceed water baseline rates, indicating that ethanol had been established as a reinforcer. Subsequently, when food pellet presentations were discontinued, and the ethanol concentration was increased from 8 to 16 to 32% (W/V), ethanol intake persisted at values exceeding water control levels; these results confirm that ethanol was functioning as a reinforcer.
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This research was supported by USPHS grant MH 20919-02. We thank Dr. Carol Iglauer, for her helpful comments concerning the manuscript and Jack Henningfield, John Judkins and Patrick Beardsley for their assistance in conducting the experiment. Portions of the data were presented at the 1972 American Psychological Association Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at the 1973 Meeting of the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence, NAS-NRC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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Meisch, R.A., Thompson, T. Rapid establishment of ethanol as a reinforcer for rats. Psychopharmacologia 37, 311–321 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428917
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428917