The authors thank Karen Dietz and Shari Birnbaum for previous input on behavioral design considerations and Lauren Peca for help with behavioral testing. The authors also acknowledge the generous support of the Simons Foundation (Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative grant to C.W.C.), NIDA (DA008277, DA027664, and DA030590 to C.W.C., F32DA027265 to L.N.S. and F32DA036319 to R.D.P.), the FRAXA Research Foundation and Eleanor and Miles Shore Fellowship Program (fellowship support to L.N.S.), and the John Kaneb Fellowship Program (fellowship support to M.T.).

All experimental procedures have been approved by the McLean Hospital Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. NOTE: The following protocol describes a single approach to CPP and locomotor sensitization, many details of which differ from other successful protocols (e.g., light- vs. dark-phase testing, consecutive vs. intermittent dosing, etc.). Novices may wish to begin with these protocols, or simply use them as guides, adapting alterations from the literature based on the experimental question(s) at hand. Automated measurement methods are described; however, it is possible to use non-automated means for each assay (i.e., video recording, hand-scoring).
1. Conditioned Place Preference
<ol>
	<li>Equipment and Room Set-Up:
	<ol>
		<li>Handle experimental mice for 1-3 min&#160;each day, for at least 3-5 days prior to testing. 
		NOTE: Never-handled mice may find removal from the chamber stressful, which can interfere with or alter conditioning.</li>
		<li>Obtain four or more three-chambered CPP apparatuses, preferably equipped with photobeams for automated data collection18. Ensure that each chamber has two larger, visually- and tactilely-distinct chambers connecting to a smaller, neutral chamber via doors that can be raised/lowered to control access. Lids on each chamber should open for insertion/removal of mice and be mounted with small, individually controllable (dimmable) lights (one per chamber). 
		NOTE: CPP chamber designs vary and can be purchased commercially or constructed by researchers. For the &#34;balanced&#34; design, a recommended scheme is one larger chamber with white walls and wire grid flooring and the other with black walls and bar flooring. The middle chamber should have gray walls and solid gray Plexiglass flooring. For explanation purposes, these chambers will be referred to as &#34;white,&#34; &#34;black&#34; and &#34;middle.&#34; Lids should be clear Plexiglass. Alternate compartment configurations (one- or two-chamber) are also possible and discussed elsewhere (see Discussion).</li>
		<li>Setup the room as it will be during testing: turn off or set overhead lights to the dimmest setting and close the door. Use a light meter inside each chamber and set the lid lights so that middle chambers are slightly brighter (15-20 lux) than black and white chambers (6-10 lux) in order to discourage mice from spending time there. 
		NOTE: If the average time spent in the middle is as much or more than in the black or white chambers, further increase the lighting contrast described in Step 1.1.3. Alternatively, use less appealing flooring for the middle. (e.g., ~220 0.5 cm diameter holes, evenly spaced in 6 x 3.5 x &#188;&#34; Plexiglass), but avoid making this chamber aversive. Pilot any alterations to ensure that decreases in middle time are not due to decreases in total explorations (crossings).</li>
		<li>Program automated data collection (&#34;procedure,&#34; Figure 1A) or manually collect data according to the following parameters. Set trials to start upon the first beam break in either conditioning chamber. Set &#34;test&#34; sessions to be 20 min in length and to track time spent and beam breaks in each chamber. Set &#34;conditioning&#34; sessions to be 30 min long and (optionally) to measure beam breaks in each chamber. Set all chamber lights to illuminate during trial.</li>
		<li>Prepare full volume of cocaine solution required for the experiment at hand. Dissolve cocaine HCl in 0.9% NaCl (saline), basing the final concentration on an injection volume of 0.1 ml/10 g body weight (e.g., for a dose of 5 mg/kg, solution concentration is 0.5 mg/ml). Vortex mixture for 30-45 sec, sterile filter (0.2 &#956;m syringe filters) and store at RT.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Testing: 
	NOTE: The general timeline for CPP is PRE-TEST, CONDITIONING, and then POST-TEST. The pre-test may be separated from conditioning by 1-3 days; however, conditioning and the post-test day should take place on consecutive days (Figure 2A). This timing should be kept the same for all cohorts in the same experiment.
	<ol>
		<li>Test during the animals&#39; light phase using the same apparatus for each animal across days.</li>
		<li>Each trial day (i.e., tests and conditioning days), move mice to the behavioral anteroom and allow them to sit undisturbed in their home cages for 1-1.5 hrs before the trial. Choose a location where mice can be moved swiftly from their cage to the apparatus, with minimal disruption, when the trial begins. Turn on all equipment so that any noises associated with the test (e.g., equipment fans) are present.</li>
		<li>Thoroughly clean each apparatus (inner walls, flooring and trays) with mild, alcohol-, glycol-ether- or ammonia-based disinfecting wipes prior to and after each mouse (use the same type of cleaner throughout the experiment). Do not neglect flooring undersides.</li>
		<li>Check that room lights are set appropriately (off or dimmed) at the beginning of each day.</li>
		<li>Proceed with the following according to whether it is a &#34;test&#34; or &#34;conditioning&#34; day:
		<ol>
			<li>On Trial Days 1 and 6 (i.e., the pre- and post-tests), place the inter-chamber doors in the open position (Figure 2B).</li>
			<li>Load the &#34;test&#34; computer program and enter animal IDs (Figure 1A), then issue start command (Figure 1B), if applicable.</li>
			<li>Gently lower each mouse into the middle chamber of its assigned apparatus, facing the back wall, and softly close the lid. Once all chambers are loaded, leave the testing room and minimize noise.</li>
			<li>Leave mice inside each apparatus until trials for all mice have closed/ended (Figure 1C). Export trial data.</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Just prior to or following the pre-test, weigh the animals. Use these weights for dose calculations during conditioning.</li>
		<li>In order to prepare for conditioning trials, calculate each mouse&#39;s pre-test &#34;preference&#34; for the black and white chambers by subtracting time spent in each of these from the other (i.e., &#34;black minus white&#34; &#38; &#34;white minus black&#34;; see Figure 3, Columns 9 &#38; 10).</li>
		<li>Since mice with strong initial preferences make balancing difficult, establish an acceptable limit for preference scores (e.g., &#60;33% of total trial time) and exclude mice that exceed it from calculations. Use a liberal limit (&#60;66% of total trial time) to maximize inclusion when attrition is likely after testing is complete (e.g., due to off-target surgical manipulations). 
		NOTE: Mice exceeding the limit can still be tested, with an attempt to keep their pre-test preferences balanced. Later, these mice can be excluded from analysis, if necessary, to balance pre-test scores. If extreme pre-test biases (i.e., &#62;800 sec) disproportionately affect one group, consider altering the conditioning environments and/or using other assays.</li>
		<li>Choose the black or white chamber as the drug-pairing chamber for each mouse, meanwhile summing the corresponding pre-test preference scores within each group with the following priorities in mind: 
		NOTE: Take care to balance scores between groups within each cohort as well as across any previous cohorts.
		<ol>
			<li>Make the sums for all groups as equivalent as possible.</li>
			<li>Make the sums as close to zero as possible (i.e., choose the preferred side for some mice and the non-preferred side for others). If a near-zero sum is impossible for any given group, re-adjust all others to closely match the best obtainable score for the limiting group, favoring slightly negative group sums over positive.</li>
			<li>As much as feasible, keep assignments of black versus white and preferred versus non-preferred chambers for drug pairings even within each group.</li>
			<li>As it is not always possible to meet the above goals, correct any deviations by making opposing balancing considerations in later cohorts; however, try to avoid producing cohorts with wildly different average pre-test preferences.</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>On Conditioning Days 2-5, place inter-chamber doors in the closed position (Figure 2C).</li>
		<li>Prepare individual syringes with cocaine (Days 2 &#38; 4) or saline (Days 3 &#38; 5) solution, as described in Step 1.1.5 and based on body weights measured at pre-test. 
		NOTE: Dose should be chosen with regard to experimental expectations, considerations mentioned in the Introduction, and potential floor and ceiling effects. It is often best to conduct independent experiments using at least two different doses.</li>
		<li>Load &#34;conditioning&#34; computer program and enter animal IDs (Figure 1A), then issue start command (Figure 1B), if applicable.</li>
		<li>Scruff and inject each mouse (i.p.), immediately lowering them into the appropriate black or white chamber of their assigned apparatus facing the back wall, then softly close the lid. Once all chambers are loaded, leave the testing room and minimize noise.</li>
		<li>Remove mice from their chamber as close to exactly 30 min as feasible (i.e., the first mice are removed from their chambers while other mice are still conditioning). Remove animals as quietly as possible, without introducing noise.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Statistical Analysis:
	<ol>
		<li>Choose a method of analysis. Either subtract time spent on the saline-paired side during the post-test from time spent on the cocaine-paired side during the post-test (cocaine - saline, sec) or use the time spent in the post-test drug-paired chamber minus the pre-test time spent on the drug-paired chamber. 
		NOTE: if using the first method, also plot line graphs of average time spent in the middle, saline- and drug-paired chambers during the pre- and post-tests for each group. Compared to the pre-test, the post-test should show increased time in the drug-paired side and decreased time spent in the saline-paired side (see Figure 6, bottom, and Discussion for explanation).</li>
		<li>Depending upon the nature and number of groups being compared, use a t-test, One- or Two-Way ANOVA, as appropriate, possibly with post-hoc analysis, to analyze either of the above-presented subtraction scores. 
		NOTE: Cocaine preference scores tend to be variable, and furthermore, can be negative (i.e., indicate aversion to the drug-paired side). Mice that show aversion should not be removed (unless they are statistical outliers), since this result is normal and likely important to determining differences between groups. Expect to need sample sizes of 12 to 30 animals per group, depending on the effect size of the treatment.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
2. Locomotor Sensitization
<ol>
	<li>Equipment and Room Set-Up
	<ol>
		<li>Obtain a 4 x 8 (X x Y) photobeam array (outside dimensions 11.5&#34; x 20&#34;). Construct an open-topped chamber made of black Plexiglas (inner dimensions 22 1/6&#34; x 13 &#190;&#34; x 9 3/8&#34;) to house the array (Figure 4A).</li>
		<li>Prepare the testing room so that a red light (ceiling- or wall-mounted) can be used during testing.</li>
		<li>Prepare separate program sessions for daily habituation and injection trials.
		<ol>
			<li>Set habituation trials to be between 30-60 min and injection trials to be between 60-120 min (Figure 5B). The recommended length for each is 60 min. Keep trial length consistent across multiple cohorts within the same experiment.</li>
			<li>Set trials to start recording upon the first beam break that occurs after the start signal has been initiated (Figure 5B). For the injection trial, set the start signal so that boxes can be started individually (not in unison), if possible.</li>
			<li>Set beam breaks to be recorded in user-defined &#34;bins,&#34; preferably 5 min each (Figure 5B).</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Prepare full volume of cocaine solution required for the experiment at hand. Dissolve cocaine HCl in 0.9% NaCl (saline), basing the final concentration on an injection volume of 0.1 ml/10 g body weight (e.g., for a dose of 5 mg/kg, solution concentration is 0.5 mg/ml). Vortex mixture for 30-45 sec, sterile filter (0.2 &#956;m syringe filters) and store at RT.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Testing 
	NOTE: The initial phase of testing runs for 10-11 consecutive days. Mice receive two daily trials: habituation (injection-free) and injection. Administer saline for the first three to four days (see Discussion for importance of saline habituation), and cocaine for the next seven using the same dose (e.g., 15 mg/kg/day).
	<ol>
		<li>Each day, acclimate mice in their home cages to the behavioral anteroom for 30 min to 1 hr.</li>
		<li>Prepare clean standard mouse-sized clear acrylic housing cages with an extremely thin layer of fresh bedding (e.g., pine chips), so as to not obscure photobeams, if applicable (Figure 4C &#38; D).</li>
		<li>Place cages against the Y-axis of the photobeam array near one end, so that five beams are spaced evenly along its length. X-axis beams are not used in this test (Figure 4C &#38; D).</li>
		<li>Take mice from their home cage, in random order, scruff and weigh them. Remove each mouse from the weigh boat by the base of their tail (with support) and place directly into their assigned locomotor cage. Cover each cage with a standard filter-top lid.</li>
		<li>Prepare individual syringes with saline or cocaine solution, as described in Step 2.1.7, based on the current day&#39;s body weights. Begin with a dose of 15 or 20 mg/kg, and consider a second experiment using a higher or lower dose (see Discussion for relevant factors).</li>
		<li>Once habituation trials have ended for all cages, load the injection program.</li>
		<li>One at a time, remove mice from their test cage, scruff and give their injection (i.p.). Before returning the mouse to its test cage, quickly initiate the start signal for that cage (Figure 5C, bottom).</li>
		<li>After all injection trials have ended, return mice to their home cages and their housing room.</li>
		<li>If desired, allow mice to undergo a series of withdrawal periods and drug challenges, such as the following: same dose as original, half-dose, double-dose, then saline, allowing seven days before the same-dose challenge and three to seven days before each additional challenge. Whatever the choice of challenges, maintain similar withdrawal periods across cohorts within an experiment. 
		NOTE: If the original dose is high (e.g., 30 mg/kg or above), the double-dose should be skipped or replaced with a lower dose. The saline challenge reveals any conditioned locomotor activation by the cocaine-paired environment alone, and in the process, the amount of sensitized locomotion that is cocaine-dependent (see Discussion).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Statistical Analysis
	<ol>
		<li>Choose the portion(s) of each trial that will be used for analysis. Most cocaine-induced locomotion in rodents occurs within the first ~15-30 min after drug injection. Depending on involved variables, consider analyzing cumulative locomotion for multiple time windows (e.g., the first 15, 30, 60 and/or 120 min) or focus on independent segments of the trial.</li>
		<li>Using the time frame chosen, sum the beam breaks for each animal by day for habituation and injection trials separately and then average the sums for each group. Plot means and standard errors of the mean (S.E.M.) in a line graph over all days. As treatments may alter how mice respond to the drug early and/or late in each daily trial, also plot average group beam breaks by 5-min bin over the course of each daily trial. 
		NOTE: Plotting daily activity averages for habituation and injection trials (e.g., first 15 min) makes it artificially appear that locomotion is dampened by saline injection, but remember that activity has (most likely) declined to this level by the end of habituation each day.</li>
		<li>Analyze consecutive saline and drug treatment days separately using repeated measures (RM) ANOVAs having the within-subjects factor of day/time and including any between-subjects factors in the design, as appropriate. Use a t-test or One-Way ANOVA to investigate group differences on Day 1 of cocaine (acute exposure), and a Multivariate ANOVA for the challenges. When appropriate, follow significance with post-hoc tests or Univariate ANOVAs.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

This protocol demonstrates methods for conditioned place preference and locomotor sensitization, each of which can be used by the average lab to assess aspects of drug-induced behavioral plasticity. As with most behavioral tests, there are additional worthy considerations beyond the basic protocol. First, each of these techniques can be conceived as having two phases, induction and expression. &#34;Induction&#34; covers the development of the behavior-for CPP it occurs during conditioning, and for sensitization it is the...

Research aimed at understanding drug addiction using animal models must take a variety of approaches to address each of the assorted components that obstruct treatment success, including reward/reinforcement/motivation and withdrawal and relapse, as well as the general persistence that further complicates these issues in addiction. Since rewarding experiences associated with taking a drug of abuse are thought to motivate subsequent use, studies focusing on drug-context associations may be particularly useful for understanding brain mechanisms that contribute to drug taking and seeking. One such assay, conditioned place preference (CPP) is a high-throughput method for comparing group differences in reward sensitivity. The traditional interpretation of the task involves classical, or Pavlovian, conditioning, where a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and after multiple pairings, the CS elicits the same behavior as the UCS (however, see39,40). Theoretically, animals learn to associate an interoceptive state (reward or aversion) with contextual cues. The relative aversive or appetitive intensity of the interoceptive state is then assessed by then determining the animal's preference for the contextual cues. The use of place conditioning to measure drug-reward associations dates back to at least 1957, to a study using morphine on rats in a Y-maze3,4. Over the past several decades, variations on this method have been widely used to study place preference and aversion in rodents to various stimuli, and it remains particularly useful in the study of associations induced by drugs of abuse. In drug-addiction research, the assay has been used to assess the rewarding properties of a number of drugs and the contribution of different brain systems and proteins to drug reward (for reviews, see5-7,44). While there are superior methods of assessing factors that contribute to drug addiction, namely drug self-administration, CPP is a simple and much more accessible approach to measuring reward function. 
Most current protocols for conditioned place preference and aversion (CPA) use an apparatus that allows rodents to have access to two distinct chambers, either via a doorway or smaller connecting chamber. Distinctions between the two chambers are often based, at a minimum, on visual and tactile cues, including wall color and floor texture, but sometimes include other elements, such as olfactory cues. "Biased" designs typically attempt to reverse a pre-existing, innate preference for one chamber over the other, such as the one that rodents generally show for a black chamber over white. "Unbiased" designs aim to create a preference to one of two chambers that were initially equally appealing by randomly counterbalancing assignment to either chamber within a group. A "balanced" design is used when animals show small preferences, but do not, as a group, favor the same chamber. Goals of this latter design are to produce 1) pre-test preference scores for the (eventual) cocaine-paired chamber that are not significantly different between experimental groups and 2) negligible preference for the cocaine-paired chamber at pre-test, either positive or negative8. The balanced design is ideal for use with the described chambers, which utilize contradicting biases for wall color (black over white) and flooring (wire over bar), resulting in a roughly equal distribution of small preferences for both the black and white sides in different animals. Balancing calculations are described in further detail below.
During conditioning, animals are exposed to a drug and quickly placed into one of these two environments for a limited time period. Exposure is typically via intraperitoneal (i.p.) or sometimes subcutaneous (s.c.) injection, although paradigms for intravenous (i.v.) self-administration9, and intracranial infusions38 in a place preference apparatus have also been developed. These pairings are complemented by non-drug (vehicle) pairings of the same length conducted in the opposite chamber, which can take place on the same day as drug pairings or on separate days. In general, when allowed to explore the apparatus after conditioning, animals will spend more time where they received a rewarding drug (i.e., one that humans and animals will voluntarily self-administer), while they will avoid a place where they were given a drug that induced illness (e.g., lithium chloride). Several studies have been dedicated to optimizing the conditions for place preference to different drugs of abuse (for review, see7). Cocaine doses (i.p.) for mice generally range from 1 to 20 mg/kg, with doses less than 5 mg/kg often used to parse high sensitivity in one group. Two or more drug pairings are typically required for adult mice10, and the length of these pairings is an important consideration. Very low doses of cocaine require an immediate and brief conditioning, likely because this method captures the most rewarding period of the exposure. Delayed or very long conditioning periods can result in no preference, or may even induce aversion11,12. Here is presented a basic method for obtaining conditioned place preference to cocaine in adult mice.
While the CPP assay is an ideal method for assessing reward-related learning and memory of drug-context associations, behavioral sensitization is arguably easier to perform and allows the assessment of changes that develop over repeated treatment. Also known as reverse-tolerance, behaviors undergoing sensitization are incrementally enhanced over repeated exposures to a particular drug of abuse, especially psychostimulants, and cross-sensitization is known to occur between some, but not all, of these drugs. One of the first assessments of cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization, in particular, in rodents was published in 197613. A number of labs have shown that sensitized locomotion is detectable long after drug cessation, depending on the original length, location and dose of exposure14-17, and the current protocol has been used to detect sensitization as long as 10 months following seven days (30 mg/kg) of cocaine treatment in mice18. The test can be performed using either photobeam or video-tracking technologies, in apparatuses of differing sizes and shapes, making it simple for many labs to perform. The robust nature, simplicity and persistence of locomotor sensitization makes its assessment an ideal part of examining basic mechanisms of long-lasting changes in drug-induced behavior. 
As is expanded upon in the discussion, an important consideration when performing the locomotor sensitization assay is whether drug is given in the home- or test-cage environment. To take advantage of the robust sensitization that occurs when drug administration occurs outside of the home cage, this protocol employs this method. However, it has been observed that when animals are not adequately habituated to a new environment before drug exposure, a novelty-induced ceiling effect occurs on Day 1, which can partially or fully mask the progressive nature of sensitization. It is likely that this represents synergistic locomotor-activating effects of the drug together with novelty, and while the mechanisms underlying such effects may be interesting, the method described is designed to reduce the role of novelty and allow the effects of the drug to be measured more independently. While it is expected this method will be useful in the assessment of other locomotor-sensitizing drugs, it has primarily evaluated its effectiveness with cocaine in C57BL/6 mice.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Cocaine Hydrochloride USP</td><td>Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals</td><td>0406-1520</td><td>Purchase and use (Schedule II controlled substance) for research purposes requires compliance and licensure according to state and federal law.&amp;nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>Conditioned Place Preference,&amp;nbsp; Three Compartment Apparatus with Manual Doors and Lights for Mouse</td><td>Med-Associates Inc.</td><td>MED-CPP-MS &amp;amp; MED-CPP-3013</td><td>Our laboratory has used these boxes; however, many alternative boxes are available &amp;amp; acceptable.</td></tr><tr><td>PAS-Home Cage Activity Monitoring Photobeam Arrays</td><td>San Diego Instruments</td><td>2325-0223 &amp;amp; 7500-0221</td><td>Our lab houses these arrays inside of custom built chambers, as described in the text.&amp;nbsp; There are alternatives available.</td></tr><tr><td>Disposable Sani-Cloth disenfecting wipes</td><td>PDI</td><td>13872</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

assessment of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization and conditioned place preference in mice

It is thought that rewarding experiences with drugs create strong contextual associations and encourage repeated intake. In turn, repeated exposures to drugs of abuse make lasting alterations in the brain function of vulnerable individuals, and these persistent alterations likely serve to maintain the maladaptive drug seeking and taking behaviors characteristic of addiction/dependence2. In rodents, reward experience and contextual associations are frequently measured using the conditioned place preference assay, or CPP, wherein preference for a previously drug-paired context is measured. Behavioral sensitization, on the other hand, is an increase in a drug-induced behavior that develops progressively over repeated exposures. Since sensitized behaviors can often be measured after several months of drug abstinence, depending on the dose and length of initial exposure, they are considered observable correlates of lasting drug-induced plasticity. Researchers have found these assays useful in determining the neurobiological substrates mediating aspects of addiction as well as assessing the potential of different interventions in disrupting these behaviors. This manuscript describes basic, effective protocols for mouse CPP and locomotor behavioral sensitization to cocaine.

Representative results from the CPP assay are shown in Figure 6 using wild-type C57BL/6N mice at approximately nine weeks of age. The study design was a 2 x 3 mixed factorial, with a within-subjects variable of Test (pre and post) and a between-subjects variable of Treatment (saline and cocaine 5 and 10 mg/kg). A RM ANOVA showed a significant interaction between Test and Treatment (F2,20=3.68, p&#60;0.05), which was interpreted in lieu of significant main effects observed for both Tes...

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Assessment of Cocaine-induced Behavioral Sensitization and Conditioned Place Preference in Mice

This protocol is intended to enable researchers to conduct experiments designed to test these aspects of addiction using the conditioned place preference and locomotor behavioral sensitization assays.

It is thought that rewarding experiences with drugs create strong contextual associations and encourage repeated intake. In turn, repeated exposures to ...

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17.0K Views.  Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital. This protocol is intended to enable researchers to conduct experiments designed to test these aspects of addiction using the conditioned place preference and locomotor behavioral sensitization assays.

Video: Assessment of Cocaine-induced Behavioral Sensitization and Conditioned Place Preference in Mice

Stereotaxic Microinjection of Viral Vectors Expressing Cre Recombinase to Study the Role of Target Genes in Cocaine Conditioned Place Preference

Microinjecting recombinant adenoassociated viral (rAAV) vectors expressing Cre recombinase into distinct mouse brain regions to selectively knockout genes of interest allows for enhanced temporally- and regionally-specific control of gene deletion, compared to existing methods. While conditional deletion can also be achieved by mating mice that express Cre recombinase under the control of specific gene promoters with mice carrying a floxed gene, stereotaxic microinjection allows for targeting of discrete brain areas at experimenter-determined time points of interest. In the context of cocaine conditioned place preference, and other cocaine behavioral paradigms such as self-administration or psychomotor sensitization that can involve withdrawal, extinction and/or reinstatement phases, this technique is particularly useful in exploring the unique contribution of target genes to these distinct phases of behavioral models of cocaine-induced plasticity. Specifically, this technique allows for selective ablation of target genes during discrete phases of a behavior to test their contribution to the behavior across time. Ultimately, this understanding allows for more targeted therapeutics that are best able to address the most potent risk factors that present themselves during each phase of addictive behavior.

This article describes how to microinject viral vectors into mouse brain and then test in a conditioned place preference paradigm that includes an acquisition, extinction and reinstatement phase.

Microinjecting recombinant adenoassociated viral (rAAV) vectors expressing Cre recombinase into distinct mouse brain regions to selectively knockout genes ...

Novel Apparatus and Method for Drug Reinforcement

Animal models of reinforcement have proven to be useful for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug addiction. Operant drug self-administration and conditioned place preference (CPP) procedures are expansively used in animal research to model various components of drug reinforcement, consumption, and addiction in humans. For this study, we used a novel approach to studying drug reinforcement in rats by combining traditional CPP and self-administration methodologies. We assembled an apparatus using two Med Associate operant chambers, sensory stimuli, and a Plexiglas-constructed neutral zone. These modifications allowed our experiments to encompass motivational aspects of drug intake through self-administration and drug-free assessment of drug/cue conditioning strength with the CPP test. In our experiments, rats self-administered cocaine (0.75 mg/kg/inj, i.v.) during either four (e.g., the "short-term") or eight (e.g., the "long-term") alternating-day sessions in an operant environment containing distinctive sensory cues (e.g., olfactory and visual). On the alternate days, in the other (differently-cued) operant environment, saline was available for self-infusion (0.1 ml, i.v.). Twenty-four hours after the last self-administration/cue-pairing session, a CPP test was conducted. Consistent with typical CPP findings, there was a significant preference for the chamber associated with cocaine self-administration. In addition, in animals undergoing the long-term experiment, a significant positive correlation between CPP magnitude and the number of cocaine-reinforced lever responses. In conclusion, this apparatus and approach is time and cost effective, can be used to examine a wide array of topics pertaining to drug abuse, and provides more flexibility in experimental design than CPP or self-administration methods alone.

Operant drug self-administration and conditioned place preference (CPP) procedures are expansively used in research to model various components of drug reinforcement, consumption, and addiction in humans. In this report, we combined traditional CPP and self-administration methods as a novel approach to studying drug reinforcement and addiction in rats.

Animal models of reinforcement have proven to be useful for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug addiction.  Operant drug ...

Neuroscience

Behavioral Assessment of the Aging Mouse Vestibular System

Age related decline in balance performance is associated with deteriorating muscle strength, motor coordination and vestibular function. While a number of studies show changes in balance phenotype with age in rodents, very few isolate the vestibular contribution to balance under either normal conditions or during senescence. We use two standard behavioral tests to characterize the balance performance of mice at defined age points over the lifespan: the rotarod test and the inclined balance beam test. Importantly though, a custom built rotator is also used to stimulate the vestibular system of mice (without inducing overt signs of motion sickness). These two tests have been used to show that changes in vestibular mediated-balance performance are present over the murine lifespan. Preliminary results show that both the rotarod test and the modified balance beam test can be used to identify changes in balance performance during aging as an alternative to more difficult and invasive techniques such as vestibulo-ocular (VOR) measurements.

Motor control and balance performance are known to deteriorate with age. This paper presents a number of standard noninvasive behavioral tests with the addition of a simple rotary stimulus to challenge the vestibular system and show changes in balance performance in a murine model of aging.

Age related decline in balance performance is associated with deteriorating muscle strength, motor coordination and vestibular function. While a number of ...

Comprehensive Analysis of Transcription Dynamics from Brain Samples Following Behavioral Experience

The encoding of experiences in the brain and the consolidation of long-term memories depend on gene transcription. Identifying the function of specific genes in encoding experience is one of the main objectives of molecular neuroscience. Furthermore, the functional association of defined genes with specific behaviors has implications for understanding the basis of neuropsychiatric disorders. Induction of robust transcription programs has been observed in the brains of mice following various behavioral manipulations. While some genetic elements are utilized recurrently following different behavioral manipulations and in different brain nuclei, transcriptional programs are overall unique to the inducing stimuli and the structure in which they are studied1,2.
In this publication, a protocol is described for robust and comprehensive transcriptional profiling from brain nuclei of mice in response to behavioral manipulation. The protocol is demonstrated in the context of analysis of gene expression dynamics in the nucleus accumbens following acute cocaine experience. Subsequent to a defined in vivo experience, the target neural tissue is dissected; followed by RNA purification, reverse transcription and utilization of microfluidic arrays for comprehensive qPCR analysis of multiple target genes. This protocol is geared towards comprehensive analysis (addressing 50-500 genes) of limiting quantities of starting material, such as small brain samples or even single cells.
The protocol is most advantageous for parallel analysis of multiple samples (e.g. single cells, dynamic analysis following pharmaceutical, viral or behavioral perturbations). However, the protocol could also serve for the characterization and quality assurance of samples prior to whole-genome studies by microarrays or RNAseq, as well as validation of data obtained from whole-genome studies.

This manuscript describes a protocol that applies comprehensive profiling for analysis of transcriptional programs induced in specific brain nuclei of rodents following behavioral paradigms. Herein, this approach is illustrated in the context of profiling genes induced in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of mice following acute cocaine exposure, utilizing microfluidic qPCR arrays.

The encoding of experiences in the brain and the consolidation of long-term memories depend on gene transcription. Identifying the function of specific ...

A Procedure to Observe Context-induced Renewal of Pavlovian-conditioned Alcohol-seeking Behavior in Rats

Environmental contexts in which drugs of abuse are consumed can trigger craving, a subjective Pavlovian-conditioned response that can facilitate drug-seeking behavior and prompt relapse in abstinent drug users. We have developed a procedure to study the behavioral and neural processes that mediate the impact of context on alcohol-seeking behavior in rats. Following acclimation to the taste and pharmacological effects of 15% ethanol in the home cage, male Long-Evans rats receive Pavlovian discrimination training (PDT) in conditioning chambers. In each daily (Mon-Fri) PDT session, 16 trials each of two different 10 sec auditory conditioned stimuli occur. During one stimulus, the CS+, 0.2 ml of 15% ethanol is delivered into a fluid port for oral consumption. The second stimulus, the CS-, is not paired with ethanol. Across sessions, entries into the fluid port during the CS+ increase, whereas entries during the CS- stabilize at a lower level, indicating that a predictive association between the CS+ and ethanol is acquired. During PDT each chamber is equipped with a specific configuration of visual, olfactory and tactile contextual stimuli. Following PDT, extinction training is conducted in the same chamber that is now equipped with a different configuration of contextual stimuli. The CS+ and CS- are presented as before, but ethanol is withheld, which causes a gradual decline in port entries during the CS+. At test, rats are placed back into the PDT context and presented with the CS+ and CS- as before, but without ethanol. This manipulation triggers a robust and selective increase in the number of port entries made during the alcohol predictive CS+, with no change in responding during the CS-. This effect, referred to as context-induced renewal, illustrates the powerful capacity of contexts associated with alcohol consumption to stimulate alcohol-seeking behavior in response to Pavlovian alcohol cues.

A procedure to study the capacity of an alcohol associated environmental context to trigger the renewal of alcohol-seeking behavior in rats is described.

Environmental contexts in which drugs of abuse are consumed can trigger craving, a subjective Pavlovian-conditioned response that can facilitate ...

Operant Sensation Seeking in the Mouse

Operant methods are powerful behavioral tools for the study of motivated behavior. These 'self-administration' methods have been used extensively in drug addiction research due to their high construct validity. Operant studies provide researchers a tool for preclinical investigation of several aspects of the addiction process. For example, mechanisms of acute reinforcement (both drug and non-drug) can be tested using pharmacological or genetic tools to determine the ability of a molecular target to influence self-administration behavior1-6. Additionally, drug or food seeking behaviors can be studied in the absence of the primary reinforcer, and the ability of pharmacological compounds to disrupt this process is a preclinical model for discovery of molecular targets and compounds that may be useful for the treatment of addiction3,7-9. One problem with performing intravenous drug self-administration studies in the mouse is the technical difficulty of maintaining catheter patency. Attrition rates in these experiments are high and can reach 40% or higher10-15. Another general problem with drug self-administration is discerning which pharmacologically-induced effects of the reinforcer produce specific behaviors. For example, measurement of the reinforcing and neurological effects of psychostimulants can be confounded by their psychomotor effects. Operant methods using food reinforcement can avoid these pitfalls, although their utility in studying drug addiction is limited by the fact that some manipulations that alter drug self-administration have a minimal impact on food self-administration. For example, mesolimbic dopamine lesion or knockout of the D1 dopamine receptor reduce cocaine self-administration without having a significant impact on food self-administration 12,16. 
Sensory stimuli have been described for their ability to support operant responding as primary reinforcers (i.e. not conditioned reinforcers)17-22. Auditory and visual stimuli are self-administered by several species18,21,23, although surprisingly little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this reinforcement. The operant sensation seeking (OSS) model is a robust model for obtaining sensory self-administration in the mouse, allowing the study of neural mechanisms important in sensory reinforcement24. An additional advantage of OSS is the ability to screen mutant mice for differences in operant behavior that may be relevant to addiction. We have reported that dopamine D1 receptor knockout mice, previously shown to be deficient in psychostimulant self-administration, also fail to acquire OSS24. This is a unique finding in that these mice are capable of learning an operant task when food is used as a reinforcer. While operant studies using food reinforcement can be useful in the study of general motivated behavior and the mechanisms underlying food reinforcement, as mentioned above, these studies are limited in their application to studying molecular mechanisms of drug addiction. Thus, there may be similar neural substrates mediating sensory and psychostimulant reinforcement that are distinct from food reinforcement, which would make OSS a particularly attractive model for the study of drug addiction processes. The degree of overlap between other molecular targets of OSS and drug reinforcers is unclear, but is a topic that we are currently pursuing. While some aspects of addiction such as resistance to extinction may be observed with OSS, we have found that escalation 25 is not observed in this model24. Interestingly, escalation of intake and some other aspects of addiction are observed with self-administration of sucrose26. Thus, when non-drug operant procedures are desired to study addiction-related processes, food or sensory reinforcers can be chosen to best fit the particular question being asked. 
In conclusion, both food self-administration and OSS in the mouse have the advantage of not requiring an intravenous catheter, which allows a higher throughput means to study the effects of pharmacological or genetic manipulation of neural targets involved in motivation. While operant testing using food as a reinforcer is particularly useful in the study of the regulation of food intake, OSS is particularly apt for studying reinforcement mechanisms of sensory stimuli and may have broad applicability to novelty seeking and addiction.

In this protocol we describe a method of operant learning using sensory stimuli as a reinforcer in the mouse. It requires no prior training or food restriction, and it allows the study of motivated behavior without the use of a pharmacological or natural reinforcer such as food.

Operant methods are powerful behavioral tools for the study of motivated behavior.  These 'self-administration' methods have been used extensively in drug ...

Reinstatement of Drug-seeking in Mice Using the Conditioned Place Preference Paradigm

The present protocol describes the Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) as a model of relapse in drug addiction. In this model, animals are first trained to acquire a conditioned place preference in a drug-paired compartment, and after the post-conditioning test, they perform several sessions to extinguish the established preference. The CPP permits the evaluation of the conditioned rewarding effects of drugs related to environmental cues. Then, the extinguished CPP can be robustly reinstated by the non-contingent administration of a priming dose of the drug, and by exposure to stressful stimuli. Both methods will be explained here. When the animal reinitiates the behavioral response, a reinstatement of the conditioned reward is considered to have taken place.
The main advantages of this protocol are that it is non-invasive, inexpensive, and simple with good validity criteria. In addition, it allows the study of different environmental manipulations, such as stress or diet, which can modulate relapse into drug seeking behaviors. However, one limitation is that if the researcher aims to explore the motivation and primary reinforcing effects of the drug, it should be complemented with self-administration procedures, as they involve operant responses of animals.

This protocol describes the Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) as a model of relapse. This procedure permits the measurement of relapse in laboratory animals, considering the impact of drug-associated environmental cues as craving and relapse in abstaining addicts is currently the focus of drug-abuse treatment programs.

The present protocol describes the Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) as a model of relapse in drug addiction. In this model, animals are first trained to ...

Methods for Intravenous Self Administration in a Mouse Model

Animal models have been developed to study the reinforcing effects of drugs, including the intravenous self-administration (IVSA) paradigm. The advantages of using an IVSA paradigm to study the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse such as cocaine include the fact that the drug is self-administered instead of experimenter-administered, the schedule of reinforcement can be altered, and accurate measurement of the quantities of drug consumed as well as the timing and pattern of IV injections can be obtained. Furthermore, the intravenous route of administration avoids potential confounds related to first pass metabolism or taste, and produces rapid increases in blood and brain drug levels. As outlined in this video, intravenous self-administration can be obtained without prior food restriction or prior drug training following careful catheter placement during surgery and meticulous daily catheter flushing and maintenance. Experimental procedures outlined in this paper include a description of animal housing and acclimation methods, operant training using sweetened milk solutions, and catheter implantation surgery.

The intravenous self-administration (IVSA) paradigm is considered to be the gold standard in examining the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse in rodents. This manuscript outlines the experimental procedures and surgical techniques necessary to obtain reliable IVSA data. In particular, meticulous catheter implantation and maintenance are highlighted.

Animal models have been developed to study the reinforcing effects of drugs, including the intravenous self-administration (IVSA) paradigm. The advantages ...

A Conditioned Place Preference Protocol for Measuring Incubation of Craving in Rats

A major cause of repeated relapses is a craving for the drug. Drug craving increases progressively during the abstinence period, a phenomenon termed incubation of drug craving. Here, we describe a morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) protocol for measuring the incubation of craving in rats. In this protocol, a CPP paradigm mainly employing somatosensory cues is used to establish a long-term reward memory of morphine. A three-chamber CPP box that differs in the texture of the chamber floor is constructed. First, the animals are tested for their baseline preference to the two side chambers for three consecutive days. Then, they are injected intraperitoneally with morphine/saline and put into their non-preferred/preferred chamber for 45 min. After 6 days of conditioning, their preference to the side chambers is tested for 15 min at different time points after the last conditioning session. With this paradigm, the reward memory of morphine could last for at least 18 days. To test whether the above-mentioned protocol can model increased craving, the number of entrances into the two side chambers are counted during the abstinence period. The results show that the entrances increased, suggesting that the CPP paradigm could mimic the incubation of craving. Future studies can employ this model to study neural mechanisms underlying long-term memory and incubation of craving.

Here, a morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) protocol is described to measure incubation of craving in rats.

A major cause of repeated relapses is a craving for the drug. Drug craving increases progressively during the abstinence period, a phenomenon termed ...

A Protocol for Measuring Cue Reactivity in a Rat Model of Cocaine Use Disorder

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) follows a trajectory of repetitive self-administration during which previously neutral stimuli gain incentive value. Cue reactivity, the sensitivity to cues previously linked with the drug-taking experience, plays a prominent role in human craving during abstinence. Cue reactivity can be assessed as the attentional orientation toward drug-associated cues that is measurable as appetitive approach behavior in both preclinical and human studies. Herein describes an assessment of cue reactivity in rats trained to self-administer cocaine. Cocaine self-administration is paired with the presentation of discrete cues that act as conditioned reinforcers (i.e., house light, stimulus light, infusion pump sounds). Following a period of abstinence, lever presses in the cocaine self-administration context accompanied by the discrete cues previously paired with cocaine infusion are measured as cue reactivity. This model is useful to explore neurobiological mechanisms underlying cue reactivity processes as well as to assess pharmacotherapies to suppress cue reactivity and therefore, modify relapse vulnerability. Advantages of the model include its translational relevance, and its face and predictive validities.&#160;The primary limitation of the model is that the cue reactivity task can only be performed infrequently and must only be used in short duration (e.g., 1 hour), otherwise rats will begin to extinguish the pairing of the discrete cues with the cocaine stimulus. The model is extendable to any positively reinforcing stimulus paired with discrete cues; though particularly applicable to drugs of abuse, this model may hold future applications in fields such as obesity, where palatable food rewards can act as positively reinforcing stimuli.

Cue reactivity is conceptualized as sensitivity to cues linked with drug-taking experiences that contribute to craving and relapse in abstinent humans. Cue reactivity is modeled in rats by measuring attentional orientation toward drug-associated cues that results in appetitive approach behavior in a cue reactivity test following self-administration and forced abstinence.

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) follows a trajectory of repetitive self-administration during which previously neutral stimuli gain incentive value. Cue ...

Assessment of Cocaine-induced Behavioral Sensitization and Conditioned Place Preference in Mice

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