Behavioral Paradigms to Model Substance Use Disorders in Animals
Sunday April 03, 2022
2:00 pm
-
3:30 pm
Central Time (CT)
113 C
BEH
NEU
Chair :
Holly Moore
National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Drug Abuse
Michelle Doyle
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Although standard intravenous drug self-administration procedures remain the gold-standard for assessing the abuse potential of psychoactive drugs, substance use disorders (SUDs) are complex, multifaceted, and not fully recapitulated by any single animal model. Recently, novel behavioral paradigms have been developed to model specific aspects of SUD to better understand the neurobiology of individual vulnerabilities to develop SUD-related behaviors, and to evaluate candidate medications for treating SUDs. After a brief introduction on the use of animal models of SUDs, three speakers will discuss their research evaluating SUD-related phenotypes in rats, the use of drug-food choice procedures, and a social-operant choice assay.
Speakers
Susan Ferguson
- University of Washington
Novel Behavioral Paradigms to Model Substance use Disorders in Animals
Dr. Ferguson will discuss recent and ongoing work using a variety of self-administration endpoints (e.g., total drug intake, breakpoints under progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement, reinstatement) and access conditions to classify rats as having a high- or low-risk phenotype in order to better understand the underlying neurobiology related to substance use disorders.
Edward Townsend
- Virginia Commonwealth University
Use of a Drug-vs-Food Choice Procedure to Investigate Mechanisms of Substance use Disorders
Dr. Townsend will present ongoing research using a choice procedure, which allows rodents to choose between drug and nondrug reinforcers. Dr. Townsend will focus on recent efforts to incorporate opioid dependence and withdrawal.
Marco Venniro
- University of Maryland
Social Interactions as Alternative to Drug Use and Craving
Dr. Venniro will discuss recent research using an operant social-choice paradigm to better understand mechanism relating to social behavior and drug self-administration in rodents.