Definition
Self-administration is a technique used in animal behavior, which relies on operant conditioning processes. Self-administration involves a process whereby an animal performs a particular behavior to receive a rewarding stimulus of some kind – generally a drug, food, or liquid such as water or alcohol but can also include stimulation of brain reward areas. The learning of this behavior is termed instrumental learning and is an operant conditioning process whereby an action becomes associated with an outcome (delivery of rewarding stimulus). Self-administration has many applications and is considered the gold standard test for assessing the potential abuse liability of new pharmaceutical compounds in a preclinical setting. The substance is considered to be of high abuse potential if the animal will self-administer it readily. Self-administration in a laboratory setting is typically performed by rats but can also be performed by any species capable of operant learning, e.g.,...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Arnold, J. M., & Roberts, D. C. (1997). A critique of fixed and progressive ratio schedules used to examine the neural substrates of drug reinforcement. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 57(3), 441–447.
Arroyo, M., Markou, A., Robbins, T. W., & Everitt, B. J. (1998). Acquisition, maintenance and reinstatement of intravenous cocaine self-administration under a second-order schedule of reinforcement in rats: Effects of conditioned cues and continuous access to cocaine. Psychopharmacology, 140(3), 331–344.
Balster, R. L., & Schuster, C. R. (1973). Fixed-interval schedule of cocaine reinforcement: Effect of dose and infusion duration. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 20(1), 119–129. doi:10.1901/jeab.1973.20-119.
Cantin, L., Lenoir, M., Augier, E., Vanhille, N., Dubreucq, S., Serre, F., et al. (2010). Cocaine is low on the value ladder of rats: Possible evidence for resilience to addiction. PLoS One, 5(7), e11592. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011592.
Everitt, B. J., & Robbins, T. W. (2000). Second-order schedules of drug reinforcement in rats and monkeys: Measurement of reinforcing efficacy and drug-seeking behaviour. Psychopharmacology, 153(1), 17–30.
Goldberg, S. R., & Tang, A. H. (1977). Behavior maintained under second-order schedules of intravenous morphine injection in squirrel and rhesus monkeys. Psychopharmacology, 51(3), 235–242.
Hodos, W. (1961). Progressive ratio as a measure of reward strength. Science, 134(3483), 943–944.
Lewis, D. J. (1960). Partial reinforcement: A selective review of the literature since 1950. Psychological Bulletin, 57, 1–28.
Richardson, N. R., & Roberts, D. C. (1996). Progressive ratio schedules in drug self-administration studies in rats: A method to evaluate reinforcing efficacy. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 66(1), 1–11.
Roberts, D. C., Gabriele, A., & Zimmer, B. A. (2013). Conflation of cocaine seeking and cocaine taking responses in IV self-administration experiments in rats: Methodological and interpretational considerations. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(9 Pt A), 2026–2036. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.04.017.
Schindler, C. W., Panlilio, L. V., & Goldberg, S. R. (2002). Second-order schedules of drug self-administration in animals. Psychopharmacology, 163(3–4), 327–344. doi:10.1007/s00213-002-1157-4.
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appelton-Century.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Madsen, H.B., Brown, R.M. (2017). Self Administration. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1262-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1262-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences