Archival ReportEscalation of Cocaine Intake and Incubation of Cocaine Seeking Are Correlated with Dissociable Neuronal Processes in Different Accumbens Subregions
Section snippets
Methods and Materials
See Supplement 1 for a more detailed description of the study methods.
Cocaine Taking Is Decreased While Cocaine Seeking Is Increased After Abstinence
Cocaine intake gradually increased from 40 to 78 infusions (F15,135 = 38.54; p < .001; Figure 1C) during long-access sessions of cocaine self-administration. After abstinence, however, escalated levels of cocaine intake decreased toward pre-escalation levels, confirming previous research (4). However, rats quickly re-escalated their intake of cocaine when re-exposed to the long-access regimen (F7,63 = 14.99; p < .001). As expected, whereas cocaine taking decreased after abstinence, cocaine
Discussion
This study demonstrates that cocaine seeking (i.e., latency to initiate and complete the first five nonreinforced responses of the session) and cocaine taking evolve in opposite direction and independently from each other during long-term abstinence from extended drug use. In addition, after it has undergone an incubation-like process, cocaine seeking persisted through re-escalation of cocaine intake after abstinence. The behavioral dissociation between cocaine taking and seeking is mediated by
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Authors SHA and LLP contributed equally to this work.